A Knight's Tale
by Kitty XIII
Summary: A humble squire, Cloud Strife, masquerades as a knight and a noble to earn just enough to support himself and his friends. But he never bargained for assasination plots, jealous nobles, a daredevil prince, and a certain pretty Lady Lockheart...
1. An Untimely Death and the Ensuing Havoc

"Oy, Cloud!"

The eighteen-year-old, blonde male looked up from cleaning the sword in his hands. Spikes of hair stuck out stubbornly into the air, and two cheerful sapphire eyes stared at the fellow squire that had called his name.

"What is it _this_ time, Yuffie?" Cloud snapped, eyes flashing briefly with annoyance, "I won't fall for the drowning cat trick again!"

But a real note of panic was in her voice as she called again.

"Cloud Strife, this isn't a joke! The tournament's in practically three minutes- and _Boss isn't breathing!!"_

"_What?!"_

A loud clatter resounded, the sword dropping onto the stones below as Cloud hurried over to Yuffie's side. The short raven-haired girl swallowed hard and pointed at the graying old knight, Sir Coryn Valentine, that she had happily served for many years.

His customary peaceable look was on his face, his hands folded over his stomach- but his chest did not rise or fall, and just a slight touch to his neck was enough to know that the old man had died. Cloud inclined his head in a momentary gesture of respect.

"Where's Zack?" Cloud finally said after a full minute of total silence.

"I think he's still getting water from the stream-"

"Not anymore, he's not, not after Yuffie harangues poor Zack in such a loud voice," a grumpy, ruffled looking man with insanely spiky black hair wearing all black attire and dragging two buckets of water behind him snorted, "What's the problem this time?"

Zack spotted the knight's lax figure and he dropped the buckets and leapt to his master's side.

"He's dead, don't bother," Cloud sighed, "Looks like it's back to playing Robin Hood for us."

"Maybe…," Yuffie said, bright-eyed all of a sudden, "Maybe _not_…Cloud, can you fit into Master's armor?"

"Yeah, but wh-"

"Don't ask, just put it on!" Yuffie ordered excitedly, hopping up and down while pulling the knight's armor off. Cloud yelped and tried to stop Yuffie's disrespectful antics.

"What the hell are you doing, Yuffie?!" Zack fairly bellowed, "You ungrateful little-"

"Oh, shut up, you jerkface," Yuffie scowled, "Think about this- Cloud could be our new knight!"

"That's funny, Yuffie, I swear you just said I was going to be a knight," Cloud chuckled, "What did you really say?"

But now Zack's curiosity was piqued, too.

"That's…the best idea you've had so far!! We can make Cloud look like a knight, act like a knight, even walk like a knight! After all, we've served one for a while now- we know how knights behave. Then, if he wins, we can live rich for the rest of our lives!" Zack whooped, helping to strip the armor and enthusiastically pinning a wriggling Cloud down to strap on the armor.

"Hey- hey, this isn't funny!" Cloud glared at Zack, continuing to struggle, "I don't get why you guys are trying to pull, but it's not funny!"

"You're gonna be our knight in shining armor, Cloud!" Yuffie sang joyfully, "You're going to enter the jousting competition!"

"I'm gonna _WHAT?_"

"Don't be nervous. You've always been good at riding those damned horses and waving that oversized twig around," Zack snapped, wrestling the breastplate's straps to fasten over Cloud's admittedly fit chest.

"Yeah? So what?" Cloud growled, trying to throw little Yuffie off of his foot, "Zack, you're good at it, too!"

"Yes, but remember that I'm not a royal-blooded person," Zack reminded grimly, yanking the gauntlets over Cloud's struggling, glove-clad hands.

"Neither am _I_!" Cloud yelped angrily, finally managing to shove Zack off. He didn't even have time enough to release a sigh of relief before his remarkably bear-like friend slammed into his side and knocked the wind out of him for good.

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Ten minutes later, a wheezing, spluttering, fully armored, and ruffled looking Cloud was led into town riding their Master's horse, a tall, clever brown mare named Arwyn that glanced back once or twice bemusedly at its unwieldy rider.

Zack, holding the horse's reins, simultaneously directed their path through the buzzing crowds and yelled at Yuffie to come back before he decided to smack her.

Yuffie was trying to escape the hawk-like eyes of Zack and giggled as she darted around in the mass of people.

Cloud was trying not to look like he was about to puke (which he was).

A disturbance up ahead drew the attention of the crowd, including that of our particular trio. From a fruit stall flew a lanky redhead wearing the garb of a jester, quickly followed by a furious blonde girl. A smile played on Zack's lips, and he halted their slow procession to observe the scene.

The redhead stood woozily, swaying and moaning as he picked himself up from the dust. He had startlingly emerald orbs for eyes and bright red hair loosely pulled back by a black band of cloth. On his cheekbones there were two small, symmetrical black crescent shaped marks. His clothing was rumpled and untucked, his hair sticking out in random directions, and his teeth twiddled a toothpick in agitated twitches.

"You, Reno, will NOT step across this line again for all of eternity until you get that debt PAID!!" the woman roared, ferociously scratching a deep gash in the dusty earth with a pitchfork. Reno, as the redhead was called, flinched and stumbled away into the gaping crowd- straight into Arwyn's chest.

He fairly bounced off of the horse and landed, once again, flat on his back, in the dust.

"Ooh," Reno hissed, slowly sitting up, "This seems to be happening more and more nowadays…"

"Well, my friend, perhaps you should try and change your ways," Zack grinned widely, offering his hand to the disgruntled male.

"Pshh, I'm in too much trouble to begin with. I don't think that I'll ever pay off those darned landlords," Reno muttered darkly, taking Zack's hand and dusting himself off, "Always on my back, they are."

"A nice way to get yourself killed, friend," Yuffie quipped jovially, slamming her hand on his back with more force than he expected. Reno nearly tipped over again.

"And to whom am I to introduce myself?" Reno sighed, gesturing towards Cloud.

"Clou-" Yuffie started to say.

"-Sir Coryn Valentine," Zack interrupted, dark eyes boring into Reno's light ones, "Our master, Knight Cory Valentine of the royal Valentine Family."

"Oh, is that so?" Reno said, his demeanor suddenly cautious, "Well…err…how's Vincent coping with my…disappearing act?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," Cloud said, lying smoothly, "It may be best just to let him cool off for a bit, Reno."

"Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Reno gulped, frightened, "No hard feelings, right?"

"Not between us," Cloud grinned, "I promise not to tell."

And so, a new friend among unfamiliar faces, Reno joined their group, insisting that he be their orator for the upcoming tournament.

"To pay off a little of that enmity, eh?" Reno had suggested slyly, carefully observing Cloud's expression. The blonde smiled in (what he hoped was) an obliging manner and accepted the jester's offer.

Apparently, Reno had been traveling away from the noble-inhabited city of Junon for some time, trying to escape his mounting debt to the Valentine family, and had found himself hitchhiking all the way across Gaia to the distant city of Midgar.

"But isn't that il-_le-_gal?" Yuffie had teased back. Reno bore a foxish grin and said, "I think riding a Chocobo would be illegal for someone as short as you."

Yuffie had turned a bright tomato red and hadn't spoken for a record time of ten minutes before striking up a conversation with Zack.

Now the foursome stood dazedly inside of the jousting ring, staring at the hedge that separated the two opposing forces when they flew at each other, full speed, and tried to knock each other down.

"Cloud, look sharp! Remember, Valentine's been to plenty of jousting matches before- this should be a piece of cake for him- er, you!" Yuffie hissed angrily, pinching the supposed knight. Grumbling something about "annoying short people", Cloud dismounted and took a stroll around the ring to check out other horses.

From a careful inspection of the other contestants' horses, Arwyn could be deemed as a very fine mare, indeed- some of the other steeds were gray with age, others ill tempered and mangy. Cloud blessed Sir Valentine's soul for taking such good care of Arwyn and swore to himself that the pretty mare would never become like one of the less tasteful horses there.

"See him?" Reno murmured, pointing at a silver-haired, slender built young man mounted on a motionless white horse, sea-foam green eyes as cold as ice, "He's Sir Sephiroth Masamune. One of the best in the league- or so I've heard."

Cloud cursed inwardly. His first tournament masquerading as Sir Valentine, his previous master, and _this_ was the opponent he got? The best of the league? Dear Jenova, he had clearly upset someone important up there to be so unfortunate.

"Sir Sephiroth Masamune, eh?" Zack mulled thoughtfully, "I know him. He was, at one point in time, accused for the attempted assassination of Rufus Shinra, White Prince of Gaia, wasn't he?"

"Yeah. Then a mysterious figure named Scarlet took the credit for the murder attempt a few seconds before committing suicide," Reno interjected, shaking his head in dismay, "Crazy people surrounded Sephiroth for quite a while, creating _quite_ the fog in which he dwelled for a large duration of his youth."

"And then he emerged as the miraculously skilled jouster hailing from the Northern Icelands, claiming that any and all rumors about hostility towards the Shinra prince was false," Zack completed, staring at the stoic male atop the brilliantly white horse.

"Thank you, guys, for making me feel _so_ reassured," Cloud snarled, smacking Zack and Reno on the heads, "Now I know that I'm up against a madman _and _a murderer_._ Thanks for the emotional booster."

But as Zack and Reno cowered under the inevitable fact that they would be struck again, Cloud saw _her_.

Long, dark black hair, fiery black eyes that glowed wine-red in the sunlight, completed with a short summer outfit of mostly black and white. A determination and a witty shrewdness showed in her clear-defined features of fair skin, flawless as if she'd been carved from pure marble. She stood there, her hair glinting metallically in the light as she conversed with Sephiroth.

"…Yes, it's pleasant to meet you too, Sir Masamune," she said politely, her pretty eyes obviously uninterested in their conversation.

"It's been a while," Sephiroth commented, "Have you been well, my lady?"

"Fairly," she replied, a small smile appearing on her face as she observed something over his shoulder, "but I do believe we may have to continue our conversation later. Your squires seem to be having considerable difficulty in staying out of trouble."

And, sure enough, Yuffie could be seen yelling vehemently at two cringing squires, waving her arms around wildly in exasperation. The little girl gave them a head-ringing smack to send them on their way

"…AND STAY OUT!" Yuffie howled after them, throwing a horseshoe at the fleeing squires.

"Hurry, Cloud!" Yuffie yipped, "They're getting ready to start the tourney!"

"Give me a second!" he shouted, riding quickly up to the beautiful teenage girl that he'd spotted before and dismounting.

"Yes?" she asked in a slightly testy voice, "And who are you?"

"Sir Clou- Coryn Valentine," the blonde answered, "And may I have the pleasure of knowing yours?"

Tifa gave him a look halfway between contempt and pity.

"Would you still ask me that if I were ugly?"

And she stalked away towards the grandstand, her long hair glimmering in the sun.

Cloud blinked in surprise.

"CLOU- CORYN VALENTINE!!" Zack yelled across the arena, "Get your lazy backside over here!!"

Cloud ignored the small explosion of apprehension in his stomach, mounted his horse, put on his frog-mouthed helm helmet, and rode towards Yuffie and the fence that separated the two opposing forces.

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"First match is Sir Coryn Valentine against the renowned Sir Barret Wallace!"

A tall, muscular man with dark skin mounted his stocky brown and white Clydesdale. He called to Cloud with an amiable smile: "May the best man win!"

"And may valiance stay in your heart!" Cloud replied as was customary to the knight caste, feeling sick at seeing the clearly deep contrast between their strengths.

Yuffie and Zack ran up, struggling to carry the long, weighted, blunt-ended jousting stick. Reno snickered behind them, saw Cloud giving a disapproving frown, and straightened up, clearing his throat and getting ready to introduce his new master to the audience, commoners and nobles alike.

"Ladies and gentlemen," a small, shrewish man announced in a slightly nasal voice, "I give you my master, well known for his indomitable strength, Sir Barret Wallace!"

The peasants on the ground cheered enthusiastically- Sir Wallace was also well known for his great compassion and kind heart- while the nobles clapped their hands graciously in the shaded stands.

Reno snorted condescendingly and leaned over to Cloud.

"Watch this," the redhead whispered, grinning in an extremely fox-like manner.

Reno strode confidently into the dusty jousting field and bowed to both the nobles and the peasants before opening his mouth to speak.

From the minute Reno let loose the first word, Cloud, Yuffie, and Zack knew that they had found a gem among common rocks. The tall and thin orator possessed the gift of glib speaking- his posture was perfect, his eyes direct and concentrated, his voice firm yet conversational.

"Fellow knights," Reno greeted with enthusiasm that came only with sheer boldness, "Fellow knights, nobles, and friends! I am a lucky man, a lucky man, indeed."

Disconcertingly, the entire arena stayed silent, eyes riveted to Reno with undivided attention. Never before had there ever been an occurrence where every single person attending a jousting competition had been entirely quiet at the exact same time.

"You most likely are wondering, '_Why_ is this scruffy man so lucky? Why does he grin so, dressed in drab garb and perfumed with dust?'" Reno continued, "The answer to your reasoning, friends, is the fact that I, Reno, have Sir Coryn Valentine as a most merciful master."

A murmur rippled through the assembled crowd, and all eyes flickered once towards Cloud before turning back to Reno.

"Our dear Sir Valentine, the conqueror of a thousand tourneys before, the savior of the vulnerable, the avatar of justice! Wielder of the Buster Blade, He Who Laid Waste to the Armies of Auhnkore," he continued, pacing before the royal stands. Cloud noted with relief that Sir Masamune was one of the nobles sitting in the observatory, not taking part in the tournament.

_But still, if I make it to the next tournament, I'll have to face him eventually,_ Cloud grimaced, staring at Sephiroth. As if he could sense Cloud's gaze, the silver-haired man shifted slightly to glance at the blonde. A tiny leer appeared on his face, and Cloud felt a sudden, unjustified surge of annoyance towards the nobleman. He spotted the pretty lady that he had seen before sitting next to Sephiroth, and Cloud felt a surprised stab of jealousy. Quickly turning away, Cloud faced Reno again.

"…And he, my lords and ladies," Reno said, leaping up onto the top of the guardrail enclosing the observatory, "He- my master, Coryn Valentine- will be the ultimate victor of this championship!"

The sheer volume of the applause from the audience nearly blew Cloud away. Whatever part of Reno's speech he had missed glaring at Sephiroth had certainly made the crowd happy.

Reno nimbly picked his way back to the ground and took a great bow to the lords and the commoners before returning to Cloud.

"How was _that_?" Reno smiled, winking at Cloud and waving at the audience.

"That was…fantastic!" Cloud managed to say, eyes wide, "I had no idea that you _had_ such skill!"

"Well, now, Sir Coryn, it's your turn to prove what he said is true," Yuffie growled worriedly, anxiously petting Arwyn's mane, "I sure hope you remember those lessons that Master taught us…"

Cloud flashed a grin at Yuffie.

"Don't you worry, short stuff," Cloud nodded cheerfully, "I'll be fine."

With those reassuring words, he coaxed Arwyn into a loose trot towards the arena, jousting stick in hand.

"I certainly hope so," Yuffie grumbled.

Cloud's senses seemed enhanced by the heady adrenaline running hot through his veins; he felt every hoof that Arwyn placed on the ground, heard every word that a sour-faced noble muttered to his wife, saw the glinting black hair of one of the women's hair…

Oh, wait. It was _Her_. That pretty girl whose name he yet did not know.

"Are you ready, Sir Valentine?"

The piping voice of the young referee shattered Cloud's daze, and Sir Coryn Valentine managed a grim nod in response.

_Remember,_ Cloud told himself, running through the list of requirements that his master had told him long ago, _Head down, back arched, eyes straight ahead, stick pointed a little to the right, visor down, Arwyn's trajectory a perfect line…_

Barret broke his Clydesdale's tense stillness with a single command. In a moment of panic, Cloud struggled to recall the words to direct Arwyn before they came to him in a burst of enlightenment.

Arwyn started into an ascending speed. Cloud held his breath as he and Barret drew closer with every hoofbeat of their horses…

Eyes shut, Cloud felt a glancing blow to his right side and a solid, jarring impact in his hand…

…and he rode on unhindered.

He opened his eyes in amazement- Barret Wallace lay in the dust, struggling to rise. An expression of sheer shock remained frozen on Zack's face and Yuffie bounced energetically up and down at the other end of the fence.

Barret cursed and gave up on standing up unaided, dragged himself up using the fence, and gave a resigned grin to Cloud.

"Sir Wallace forfeits!" the referee squeaked over the crowd's uproar, "Sir Valentine wins the first round!"

Still dazzled by the sheer noise of the cheering, Cloud steered peaceful Arwyn past the observatory- where the beautiful lady watched him intently- and back towards his two squires.

"You did amazing!!" Yuffie squealed, appearing to have a seizure while standing up, "You beat him for sure!"

"I knew you had it in you!" Zack finally exploded, fiercely squeezing the breath out of a choking Cloud.

"Get…offa…me," Cloud managed to spit out between oxygen-deprived, strangulated gulps of air, "Zack…idiot…gonna pass out…"

Zack finally released Cloud (who spluttered for a while before being able to see straight or breathe without paining his ribs) and beamed at the blonde.

When his vision straightened out and the sore tears were blinked from his eyes, Cloud noticed Reno's absence.

"Err…guys?"

"Yeah?" Yuffie smiled, turning to Cloud.

"Umm…where's Reno?"

And then Cloud spotted a certain redhead being dragged off by two men clad in black.

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The blonde pushed his way impatiently through the throng of people, and by the time he got there, the two men in black had dumped Reno onto the earth before their master.

Cloud blinked. This guy looked like a vampire.

Oddly scarlet eyes glowered imperiously down at Reno, long black hair held back from his face by a red strip of cloth. A red cloak, a black ensemble of clothing underneath, and plenty of silver chains clinking as the man shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Dull gold boots and gauntlets with sharp-cut edges sheathed his hands and feet, and a jagged-bladed black sword hung from his waist.

"Oh," Reno said in a tiny voice, "Whoops."

"Whoops is right, Reno," a soft, rumbling voice came from the man before them, "Did you forget about your debt so easily?"

"No, 'course not!" Reno said hastily, "But, umm…see…I don't have the money yet."

"Yet?"

Cloud stepped forward, sucking in a breath of apprehension before addressing the stranger in red and black.

"I'm his new master," Cloud replied, "And if my herald here owes you a fine, then let me repay you when I win this tournament."

"Bold words for a daring man," he murmured amusedly, "Yet intriguing. Let me speak to you aside, bold knight."

Cloud followed the willowy man into a more secluded area and his nervousness mounted.

"Who are you?"

"Sir Coryn Valentine."

The stranger's eyes seemed to glow.

"Well, then… I don't think I remember you. I am Vincent Valentine. Of, presumably, the same Valentine family."

_Oh crap._

But Vincent remained perfectly calm, undisturbed by Cloud's pseudonym.

"I have observed your performance, Sir Coryn," Vincent said slowly, "and I respect your skill. You have much potential, and I see that within the way you fight, the way you ride. So, I have a deal to make with you, brave knight.

"If you pay me back the money that Reno owes me for his wasteful gambling and embezzlement, I will let you keep him as your speaker, and I will keep your secret…a secret.

"However, should you not, I will take Reno and punish him as I- the Valentine family- sees fit," Vincent finished softly, "and if you haven't heard, the Valentines are not known for their patience nor their gentleness."

"And what about my masquerading?" Cloud asked tersely, "Will you say my true identity as well? I only fight to keep my friends and myself under a roof, with meals to eat every day. Would you take that away?"

"No," Vincent replied, "Even if you are unable to pay me back, all that I will do is take Reno. From here on, I will not disclose your identity to any entity as long as I live."

"What? Why?" Cloud said, joyfully surprised.

Vincent smiled.

"I am an honest and reasonable man, Sir Valentine," Vincent said, a smile curving his lips for the first time, "I know sheer talent when I see it. And I see talent of the purest in you. Do not fail my expectations, or the prestige of _our_ family name."

Vincent snapped his fingers, and his aides immediately withdrew into the shadows. Reno blinked, astonished by his reprieve, and hurriedly scurried to Cloud's side.

"I will be watching, Sir Coryn Valentine," Vincent nodded, walking away, "Do not disappoint me."

Reno gaped after the departing figure.

"What strings did you pull to get him to just let me off like just like _that_?" Reno queried, mouth open. Cloud tapped Reno's jaw shut and grinned.

"He's an honest and reasonable man, Reno," Cloud answered ruefully, "I think he understood."

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Cloud's initial win seemed like a harbinger of victory- miraculously, he plowed straight through the entire lineup of challengers, flattening one after another after another. By the end, his impressive tally earned him the title of Jousting Champ, and as Cloud laughed and basked in the newly earned approval of nobles and peasants alike, he saw a deeply satisfied Vincent Valentine smile and incline his head in a gracious symbol of admiration.

But here came the sword matches.

His first opponent in the sword matches pronounced himself as a certain Cid Highwind. Reno informed Cloud that Cid's fondness for profanity had gotten the irritable old man into a tight spot more than once, but Cid's incredible skill with the sword had unfailingly wriggled him out of trouble each time.

Cloud swallowed hard, highly aware of the judging eyes that tracked his every move- particularly Sephiroth, Vincent, and the still nameless raven-haired lady he had spoken to before.

The unshaven blonde man flashed Cloud a grin, a long sword held in his hand. Cloud warily watched Cid's every move- Reno had also told him that Cid's attacks were swift and punishing if they made contact. And sure enough, his vigilant waiting was well rewarded by successfully dodging Cid's sword jab.

After five more of these lightning-fast strikes, Cloud began to spot openings in the old man's defense, and after another long period of contorting his body to avoid the sword blade, Cloud snuck in a tiny blow.

Cid's shocked, but amiable face and rueful curse after his loss made up completely for Cloud's earlier rejection of the day.

Cloud grinned. Today was a good day, indeed.

This new arrival in the tournament won every match he entered, his sword and feet moving quickly enough that not one person could match the total dominance in both speed and agility. The silver blade swung through the air again and again, a joyful ringing reverberating from every strike it carried out.

"And the 'Sword and Jousting Champ' is our noble Sir Coryn Valentine!" the referee proclaimed, deeply astonished at the insignia of the flag that he waved- the symbol of the Valentine family, a deep scarlet rose resting in the center of a woven crown of jet black thorns.

Through the mass of bodies, flags, and glinting steel, Cloud saw Vincent smile faintly before mouthing something to him and vanishing into the crowds.

_Your debt is repaid, Sir Coryn Valentine._

Zack jerked Cloud out of his reverie with a cheery smack on the shoulder.

"Nice job on the win! Looks like we'll have to practice more often for the tournaments now," Zack congratulated, leaning in close, "But where'd you get the banner?"

"A dear friend," Cloud grinned broadly, eyeing the spot where Vincent had stood, "One of my dear, dear friends."

Once the peasant crowds had been pushed back, and the gold trophy was presented to Cloud, Sir Coryn Valentine rode his horse up to the observatory yet again, determined to ask for Her name.

"My lady, please, would you tell me your name?" Cloud pleaded, fixing his own sapphire orbs onto her dark auburn ones.

"You persist?" she queried, surprised, "I ask of you again- would you care if I were ugly, fair knight?"

Before Cloud could respond, the white-haired knight to the woman's side smirked maliciously and spoke. The entire crowd seemed to hush in awe as the dramatic scene between two new rivals played out.

"Sir Coryn Valentine, hmm?" Sephiroth murmured, "What a state your armor is in now, and yet you persevere in trying to woo a lady in _that?"_

Cloud felt an surge of unbridled anger raging beneath the cool, lightly scuffed ar, but he remained silent.

"And my friend, _colleague_," Masamune continued, "Do you know that your name is pronounced 'Cor-in Valentine', not 'Cor-ine Valentine?

"I thought not," Sephiroth sneered, satisfied, "Clearly your origin is of no consequence; your ignorance outlines that quite frankly."

Cloud ground his teeth and narrowed his eyes to sapphire crystalline slits. What right did Sephiroth have to test his patience so?

To his ultimate surprise, the lady to Sephiroth's left abruptly intervened before the tense situation exploded into violence.

"I think, Sir Masamune," she murmured softy, but with decisive command, "that's quite enough. We should be celebrating our discovery of Sir Valentine's timely victory, not cutting him down. Let us not forget that everyone begins at the same place, at the same time, Sephiroth, and that you were once as inexperienced as he."

She turned to Cloud, a vague smile set upon her face.

"And Sir Valentine, I congratulate you on your recent victory. Good luck in the future, brave knight," she spoke, a spark of curiosity hidden beneath carefully smooth political tones, "I bid thee good day."

The woman stood, her dark hair glimmering momentarily in the light before gliding gracefully off into cooler shadow.

Her interference bumped up Cloud's level of affection for her exponentially, and he looked at her gratefully before riding off, head high, a determined flame burning to prove his worthiness to his still nameless savior.

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Unbeknownst to the new celebrity, a shadow of a frown darkened Sephiroth's features after he departed. Still staring fixedly at Cloud's back, Sir Masamune called over his squire, a slender-built male clad in black leather with sheets of translucent silver hair and cat-like greenish yellow eyes.

"Kadaj," Sephiroth spoke in a low tone, "investigate Sir Coryn Valentine, and report to me when your task is complete. I want to know everything about him: his origin, his past, his bloodline, his friends, his enemies- everything."

Kadaj wordlessly nodded, slipping back into the shadow. As he walked into the darker black, two other squires of silver hair and queer eyes fell in place on either side of him.

"Yazoo, Loz," Kadaj greeted shortly, not so much as blinking at their mysterious materialization, "We've got work to do."


	2. White As Snow

Cloud's initial victory appeared to be a harbinger for his future tournaments

Cloud's initial victory appeared to be a harbinger for his future tournaments. The rising star crushed every opponent in every tournament, and his popularity amongst the commonfolk swelled with every passing contest- as did Sephiroth's unease and impatience to know more about his new rival.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were slowly panicking- no matter where they turned, no matter whom they spoke to, there wasn't so much as a word of Cloud's shady background. There were only conversations about Cloud's most recent victory, or once in a while, whispered in giggles by the porcelain-white girls of the nobles, his "rugged good looks". The trio was forced to look through the pages of the records in the libraries, trying to trace his ancestry- and all they found was an infuriating "Refer to ShinRa library for further details" in place of the nobles' family trees. Only one piece of incriminating information was available, circulating through the crowd in soft voices, murmurs, and light teasing- his rumored love for the gentle, but strong Lady Lockheart.

Before they could so much as contact Sephiroth from the inner dwellings of Midgar, Cloud had made it to the semifinals.

"Hey hotshot, how's it goin'?" Reno drawled, twirling a toothpick in his mouth as he shambled up to Cloud, Yuffie, and Zack, "Where're we due next?"

"It looks like we're going to a luxury settlement called, 'The Edge'," Zack answered, his expression troubled, rapidly reading their invitation for maybe the thirtieth time that day, "But I've never even _heard_ of there, and I ran a delivery service a few years ago. I traveled _everywhere_, and I've seen not head nor tail of this 'Edge'."

"You are a knight on your way to the semifinals at the Edge, I presume?"

A smooth, velvety voice cut straight through the hazy murmurs of the crowd like a bell's chime on an icy night. A beautiful black mare trotted up next to Arwyn and Cloud, tossing a forelock out of her eyes with huff. Her rider was clad in the same shade of black from head to toe, starting with a hood over their head and ending with worn, but sturdy riding boots (which, curiously enough, lacked the usual spurs). A silver chain hanging off of the hilt of a sword clinked as he or she turned to face Cloud & Co.

"Ye- yes, we are on our way to the semifinals. Would you be kind enough to show us the way?" Cloud replied, a little bit puzzled as he tried to recognize the person's face. As if the horse knew his intentions, she took a couple of steps to the side, obscuring her master's face once more. Yuffie's sharp eyes snared the briefest glimpse of blonde hair and crystalline blue eyes…

A light chuckle came from the strange rider.

"You'll have to excuse me, but I would like to keep my identity quiet," he apologized, patting the horse's back, "You may address me as Niveus if you must."

"'Niveus?'" Reno pondered out loud, searching lime-hued eyes fixed on the face beneath the hood, "Translated to 'White' in Latin. Nice to meet you, Niveus."

"And it is a pleasure to meet you…?"

"Reno," the redhead grinned, "The short one's Yuffie, and the sulking one over there with the map is Zack."

"Greetings to you all, then, Reno, Yuffie, and Zack. But Sir Valentine, would you mind leaving now? Unfortunately, I may have a bit of unwelcome company on the way soon if we do not make haste," Niveus informed gently, his head turning to scan the crowd. His survey was worth it- a small band of riders in the silver armor of the royals' personal militias approached from behind.

For the first time in a few months, Cloud felt fear clawing at his heart. Whoever this person was, the nobles did not like him. And when the nobles didn't like people, those people tended to vanish into thin air sooner or later.

"Ah," Niveus sighed in an almost exasperated tone, "It seems like we're going to have to run."

Yuffie, Zack, and Reno quickly got onto their own horses, hurling glances at the advancing battalion all the while. Niveus's horse stamped impatiently and paced, waiting for everyone to get settled.

"Are we ready?" he queried softly, looking back at Cloud, Yuffie, Zack, and Reno. Cloud gave a tight nod.

"Fly, Artemis!" Niveus called, and the black horse leapt into action.

Artemis's speed shocked Cloud- even Arwyn, an extremely fast and well-footed horse, had a hard time keeping up. This horse was definitely a product of exceedingly selective breeding…maybe Niveus was a horse thief?

Before Cloud could speculate more, Artemis flitted into a side alley, clearing a path for Cloud, Yuffie, Zack, and Reno. Arwyn immediately swerved, nearly throwing Cloud off of her back. Once he'd recovered, he saw Zack and Yuffie similarly hanging from the stirrups- but Reno had no difficulty staying on whatsoever- in fact, while his friends struggled to reseat themselves, the redhead went whizzing up to join Cloud at the front of the procession. Evidently Niveus had spotted Reno's antic, for he called, "Where did you learn to ride like that, Reno?"

Reno smiled mischievously.

"When you steal horses," Reno reasoned cheerfully, "They like to run fast and try to throw you off!"

Niveus laughed at that, and the chase continued.

"Blehhh…"

Yuffie fell off of her horse into a small lump on the ground. Reno carefully aimed, then threw an acorn at her head.

"OW!" Yuffie yelped, rubbing her tender skull, "What was that for?"

"Just making sure you were awake," Reno replied innocently, ruffling her hair as he passed. Her eyes narrowed, and a low growl rumbled in her throat. The _nerve_ of Reno to do that!

Cloud and Zack were, understandably, a little winded, and were astonished to see Niveus land gracefully on his feet with a small thud.

"How…how did you…?"

Niveus seemed to grin.

"Practice makes perfect," he offered as an answer, "But you aren't all that bad yourself, Sir Valentine."

"How do you know…?"

"Please, Sir Coryn Valentine," Niveus said earnestly, "Do not be so modest. Everyone on the streets knows your name, your face, your voice."

"Everyone also knows the name of the Prince," Zack retorted, "The White Prince, Rufus Shinra."

Niveus stiffened slightly at that name.

"What's wrong, Niveus?" Yuffie asked, her eyes once again spotting that which nobody else noticed, "Is there bad blood between the two of you?"

"No…and yes…," Niveus murmured ambiguously, "I wonder if I could share a secret with you all…"

The four of them looked up expectantly.

"You are surrounded on all sides. Step slowly away from your horses."

Niveus snarled.

Their pursuers had caught up, and set a trap. Archers lined the roofs of the back alley and swordsmen came clattering from both sides of the hall. Every arrow, every sword point was unwaveringly fixed on Cloud, Yuffie, Zack, and Reno.

But none were directed at Niveus.

Niveus heaved a sigh, and pulled off his hood.

A handsome teen with slightly messy blonde hair and piercingly crystalline blue eyes frowned at the head knight of the battalion. The head knight pulled off his helmet at his approach.

"Tseng, I thought that I told you _not _to follow me?" he exhaled, ruffling up his already displaced locks of hair. His disheveled appearance almost enhanced his naturally fine features, the annoyed look on his face giving it a boyish aura.

"And I thought I told you to head straight to The Edge," 'Tseng' snapped irritably, like an old wolf chastising a persistently disobedient pup, "I don't think picking up a few hitchhikers was part of the deal."

Tseng was not of European descent, clearly defined by rare black, shoulder-length hair and deep ebony pools for eyes. On his forehead there was a single black diamond marking, stating that he was from a particular clan or family. He would have looked quite handsome as well if there hadn't already been a scowl affixed on his face.

"Honestly, you're going to give all of us a heart attack if you don't stop running off like that," another knight voiced.

Another _female_ knight voiced.

"What?" Cloud exclaimed, seeing the blonde woman with dark chocolate-brown eyes pull off her helmet as well.

One of her eyebrows quirked.

"What, never heard of the Turks?" she mused, "Oh, wait, right, we're supposed to be nonexistent."

Niveus growled in annoyance.

"Alright, fine, fine, just let me give them directions to The Edge and then we can leave, okay Tseng?" he conceded, looking disgruntled at being scolded. Tseng's frown deepened.

"Two minutes," he snapped, "Two minutes and then you get back on your Lifestream-blessed horse and we're off to The Edge. Your father is going to _kill_ me…"

"Since when has _Father_ cared about me?" Niveus sneered with unexpected venom, eyes glittering with pure hate. Cloud almost flinched away as Niveus turned, the malice almost palpable before it died away.

"Sir Coryn Valentine," Niveus acknowledged politely, a completely different picture from before, "Your way to The Edge should be three days' ride from here, heading straight to the North. I wish you well on your trip, and am regretful that I did not have the time to get to know you and your friends better."

"Wait- Niveus!" Cloud called as the yet unidentified noble remounted Artemis, "Who exactly _are _you?"

Niveus pulled his hood over his elegant, handsome features again and the last thing that they saw was a fleeting look of amusement on his face.

"Well, then, Coryn, that's for me to know and for you never to find out, isn't it?" he almost snickered, sliding a black riding glove over his hand. For one last time, Yuffie's probing gaze spotted just a momentary flash of a jet-black tattoo in the form of a curling serpent wrapped around his hand and reaching further up past the black sleeve.

And with that, Artemis reeled around, gave a farewell neigh to Arwyn, and sped off with her unnatural agility. Tseng and Elena followed on their horses, struggling to keep up with Niveus's near-unmatchable pace.

Arwyn snorted as if to say, "Wow, what a show-off."

Cloud sighed in resignation and mounted Artemis.

"So let's see here," Cloud summarized, ruffling his already-messy hair in agitation, "A disgruntled royal running _away_ from his family, willing to help some random stranger off of the street to The Edge? And not acting all holier-than-thou like most nobles are?"

"Doesn't fit at all into the usual profile of a member of a royal family," Reno agreed, an uncharacteristic frown appearing on his face, "Are you sure he wasn't bluffing?"

"What reason would he have to bluff? And I doubt any commoner could summon up enough money to hire a whole squadron of fully-equipped militiamen, one of them of foreign origin, for their own whim," Zack thought aloud, pacing back and forth.

"If _none_ of you noticed, I suppose now the female will now have to show you what you guys didn't notice," Yuffie sighed disdainfully, her nose turned up in the air.

"Oh, stop preening and get on with it, Yuff," Reno smiled, shattering her attempt at acting like a royal. Yuffie huffily protested before beginning.

"First off, his looks- no _offense_ or anything, but you don't see faces like his everyday on the street. He didn't have so much as one scar or scratch- it means that clearly, he _is_ a noble boy," Yuffie explained to them patiently, "Secondly, he seemed uncomfortable with the name 'Rufus Shinra'. So he's either another contender for the throne or a displaced royal kiddy that wants to be king.

"Thirdly- and this was the hardest thing to understand- he has a snake tattoo on his hand- it means that either he was trained at the highest level of difficulty and stress at an extremely prestigious, but secluded assassin camp, OR he's part of a royal family that is symbolized by a black snake."

"Well, there are none that go by a black snake," Zack interrupted, "But a few different families go by the crimson snake, the poison-ivy snake, and the highest family in the land- the ShinRas- have a silver dragon as their insignia. I suppose a dragon could look like a snake…"

"That's what I saw. So I guess we're up against a high-ranking or high-ranked, noble, dangerous boy," Yuffie mused thoughtfully.

"Aww, I think Yuff has a crush!" Reno yipped cheerfully, nudging the short girl in the ribs. She gave a squeal of protest, blushing furiously, and landed a punch on Reno's shoulder with far more force than expected of someone of such small stature.

"So you _do _like Niveus," Cloud nodded mischievously, eyes twinkling in amusement. Yuffie, still flaming a bright scarlet around the cheeks, shook her head vigorously.

"No, I DON'T!" she insisted in an annoyed, but almost bashful voice, "I don't, I don't, I don't!!"

"Okay, okay!" Zack admitted hastily, "You don't like him! But really, tell me what you were about to say before Reno interrupted you."

Yuffie sucked in a calming breath before continuing, a trace of pink still lingering on her face, "Okay, so I said that Niveus was definitely NOT a commoner, and doesn't like the Shinras."

Zack and Cloud contemplated this for a moment.

"Err…guys, I don't mean to intrude, but umm…we kinda need to get moving if we want to get to the Edge on time," Reno broke in and the serene silence shattered.

Zack, Cloud, and Yuffie yelped and leapt onto their horses, yelling at Reno for not warning them sooner and yelling at each other for "banging your horse's head into my horse's head". All the while, they were unaware of three identical pairs of splintery celadon irises tracking their every move from the rooftops.

"Well, well, well, isn't this interesting?" Kadaj purred predatorily, his lips curling back from slightly pointed teeth, "Prince boy has taken interest in Sir Coryn."

"It seems we've found a weak point for Sephiroth-sama to exploit," Loz added in an almost completely flat tone.

"What, by attacking Valentine? Princey'll act like every other good noble and act sad and sensitive while he's scheming to blame it on someone else to save his own neck," Loz snorted, slapping his hand on his sword's sheath.

"Maybe not," Kadaj contradicted, bright eyes glittering thoughtfully, "Maybe, seeing the Prince's unorthodox principles of suicidal loyalty and ridiculously sheltering protectiveness, if Coryn is handicapped by an opponent in any way, the Prince's insurmountable fury would spill over his caution…"

"…Leaving open a hole in his defense that will be too late realized," Yazoo completed musingly, "Perhaps it will work. We should at least suggest it to Master."

Kadaj gave a hefty sigh.

"But we still have nothing to go on. Sir Coryn Valentine remains Sir Coryn Valentine, with no holes in his shining armor," the eldest of the three noted in an achingly truthful manner, "There's no dirt on him, not so much as a trace of bad behavior."

"No dirt…no noble in the history of Gaia has had perfect behavior. I suppose that we must have to go to the true sources in order to find any convincing evidence. Did he have a governess? Any chamber-maidens close to him? Anyone who would know his true behavior when he was younger?" Kadaj soliloquized, contemplating different ways to bring the invincible Coryn Valentine down.

"Then I guess that we're on our way to the Valentine Residence?" Loz growled roughly, being a man of actions, not words.

"Yes, we are, Loz," Kadaj said, a twinge annoyance accenting his voice at his colleague's blunt frankness, "But first we pay the Library of the Shinras a visit, to look up this obscure 'Coryn Valentine'."


	3. The Beautiful Lady's Name

Reno leaned far back in the saddle of his horse, yawning widely and scratching his head with a sigh.

"Are we there yeeettt?" Reno whined for the fifth time in three minutes, slouching back forward into the slightly knotted red mane of his roan horse, Odysseus.

The forbidden four words had been let loose, and Reno prepared himself for the full brunt of the wrath that he had most definitely garnered from his traveling companions. He wasn't disappointed.

In a miraculous unity that his dysfunctional "family" so severely lacked most of the time, Yuffie, Cloud, and Zack flipped around and simultaneously yelled loudly enough that the birds roosting in the trees around them fled from their nests.

"Sss-hhh-uuu-ttt UUU-PPP!!"

Reno flinched at the dagger stares they were giving him and hid behind Odysseus's head.

"Never mind," he squeaked in a tiny voice, hunched up and small. With a huff, his companions turned their eyes back to the brightly colored path ahead.

Growing up and living a place with such little vegetation and the air perpetually smelling of hot dust, Cloud, Zack, Reno and Yuffie were amazed and a little more than astounded at the thousands of trees that stood majestically by the road. Thick branches weighted with the warm, festive fall colored leaves veiled the soft skies overhead and the husky, dry scent of thriving woodland hung refreshingly in the air. Wet, dappled shadows slid over their faces as the horses trotted, and the lush grass around them enticed their steeds every time they slackened their grip on the reins. Periodically birds would burst into cheery song, their voices weaving melodies that trembled in the air for several seconds after they finally silenced. They had never before seen so much natural beauty amassed in one concentrated form, and they gladly accepted the wood's generous offer of wild food, water, and shelter.

When they finally made it through the woods several spider bites, unpleasant encounters with the natural residents, and restless nights later, the four of them emerged, as promised, at the edge of The Edge- a towering city of splintered metal and lopsided junk, the ruins of one of the most mysterious and magnificent cities in the world.

Arwyn trotted into the city, her curious eyes probing at the glimmering structures that now housed the poor in the settlement. But as they ventured forth, Arwyn noted the progressively fantastic homes there were- the greatest of them nestled to the direct left of the huge, steel-woven nest-like jousting arena. This house had clearly existed before the pioneers had set foot in the city from its sleek, futuristic outward design and its gravity defying structure. And of course, the name emblazoned in front of the gated house held the name "The ShinRa Residence."

Cloud rolled his eyes. Of course. Who else would be able to buy a house of such grandeur?

"It looks like we're here," Zack sighed, sliding off of his horse and landing on the ground with a slight _thump_. Odysseus whickered in glad agreement, sliding Reno off of his back. The redhead flopped about helplessly on the dusty earth, trying to get up.

"I knew that _sake_ wasn't good for you," Zack sighed, nudging the non-responsive speaker with his dusty riding boot. The slightest grunt of annoyance came from the redhead.

Cloud chuckled before looking around the other contestants that had come to The Edge for the tournament. He had studied a little noble origin before he came, and was eager to test his newfound knowledge of the royals…

There was the Highwind family, the roaring golden lions woven on royal blue, with the profaning Cid at the center of the rabble, the Valentine family of the scarlet rose and black thorns, from where the silent Vincent gave a slight smile and a nod to Cloud, the Masamune family-

The Masamune family.

Cloud's eyes were fixed on the green-and-gray Masamune banner of a solemn, white one-winged angel wielding a long, silver sword. Scanning their crowd, at last he found the face that he had sought…

Sephiroth's holier-than-thou expression was still on his face, conforming exactly to the typical noble character. Cloud caught his gaze, and Sephiroth smirked.

"I'll wipe that smile off your face yet," Cloud vowed, continuing to scan the crowd. The foursome continued to look at the banners of the other highest-ranking noble families in Gaia besides the Masamune including the Gainsborough, the Lockheart, and the currently crown-bearing Shinra…

Yuffie's heart gave a jolt as her wandering gaze followed Cloud's and fell upon the silver dragon insignia of the Shinra. Now that she thought about it, the black tattoo on Niveus's hand looked more like a _dragon_ than it did a snake- did that mean that Niveus was no more than a noble's pet assassin? But clearly not, for assassins were trained for unbreakable obedience, and Niveus had been everything _but _obedient…

To her utter astonishment, she spotted- who else?- Niveus sitting atop a beautiful _white_ horse.

"Speak of the devil and he will come," Yuffie muttered to herself.

"Did you say somethin', Yuff?" Zack asked absentmindedly, turning to look at her.

"N…nah, I didn't say anything," Yuffie answered. Until she could be sure of anything, she didn't want to worry her traveling companions…

"Oh. Okay then," Zack accepted readily, turning back to continue his enthusiastic argument with Reno.

"Eh… He really is clueless," Yuffie thought with a half-exasperated sigh, turning back to observe Niveus.

The black horse that he had seemed so fond of, Artemis, had vanished entirely, and Yuffie's brow furrowed in confusion. Assassins preferred to keep as many constant things in their tumultuous lives if possible- it didn't make sense that an assassin would switch steeds that quickly.

As if Niveus sensed her gaze, the black hood turned to face her. She could just imagine his infuriating, yet admittedly adorable smirk…

Niveus raised a hand to his brow and lightly saluted her before a rather large caravan of drunken commoners passed in front of him, obscuring her view of him entirely.

"No, no, no!" she hissed angrily, waving her hand as if it would move the mass of intoxicated men past any faster, "No fair!"

But of course, once the wagon finally passed, Niveus was gone.

"Sir Coryn."

Cloud whipped his head around, expecting to see some noble or a fellow opponent. Instead, he found himself looking at a dusty, ragged red cloak, slightly rumpled, travel-worn black clothing, tinkling silver chains, sharp-tipped gold gauntlets and boots, alabaster white skin, raven hair, and a pair of familiar, amused scarlet eyes…

Cloud relaxed.

"Vincent," he greeted cheerfully, "How's it been?"

"Fairly well," Vincent smiled, "I already know of your many triumphs, so I assume that you are also well?"

"Of course," Cloud agreed, grinning.

"I assume that Arwyn, Zack, Yuffie, and our favorite Reno are having the time of their lives?" Vincent chuckled softly, watching an infuriated Yuffie hurl a horseshoe at a weedy-looking urchin that had apparently tried to snatch some bangle from Arwyn's decorative bridle.

"Well, we're working on Yuffie's anger management issue and her fondness for throwing things, but other than that, they're all fine," Cloud sighed, watching Reno argue with Yuffie in agitated yips that made them look and sound like squabbling pups, "Or at least, I _hope_ that they're all fine."

Vincent calmly observed Reno and Yuffie's argument culminate in a childish flurry of slaps and blows that left the Reno with a scratch mark on his cheek and Yuffie with a growing lump on her head. They glared huffily at each other and stalked off in different directions.

"Well, I can tell that with them around, you're _never_ bored," Vincent commented, raising an eyebrow at the result of their argument.

"Never get any peace around them, either," Cloud muttered darkly, watching the two of them collide again in another catfight.

Vincent chuckled again. It was a soft, muted sound, as if he weren't quite used to the action. The two of them watched quietly for a while before Vincent turned to Cloud again, his brow slightly furrowed.

"Now, I assume that you will be staying with us, Sir Valentine?" Vincent asked quietly, observing Cloud's expression carefully.

Cloud turned to look at Vincent, still completely clueless and unperturbed.

"Stay with who?" Cloud asked, puzzled.

"The rest of the Valentine family," Vincent replied uncomfortably, shifting his weight restlessly from on foot to the other.

"Who, _us?_" Cloud laughed, patting Vincent on the back, "_Us?_ No way! While we may have to impersonate nobles to get by with this…"

Cloud gave another chuckle.

"There's no way we could actually act like nobles. I mean, look at Yuff and Reno for example!" Cloud said brightly, gesturing vaguely towards Yuffie and Reno. Yuffie had one arm wrapped around Reno's neck in a chokehold, forcing his tall body to fold in half with the other hand curled into a fist that mussed up the disheveled red locks. Reno howled and tried to wriggle away from her, but to no avail.

"See what I mean?" Cloud smiled comfortably at Vincent, "It's alright. We know. We might have to act like nobles…but we know, at heart, we're really just normal commoners."

Vincent blinked in surprise.

"If…if you really don't mind the exclusion from camp…"

Cloud grinned.

"Trust me, we are _fine._ We don't want anything more than to show up a few of the nobles higher up on the social ladder. Just to prove that commoners," Cloud said, waving at himself and his squires collectively, "can do anything that nobles can. All we want to do is change a few minds, earn something to live off of. Nothing fancy like…becoming a noble. We'll just…camp out in a Valentine barn or something."

And with one final, crooked smile, Cloud lightly jogged over to Reno and Yuffie (who was now wrestling for control of a hammer with Reno in the dust).

Vincent's vaguely shocked appearance faded from his face, and his lips twitched upwards briefly in a half-smile.

"A rising star that has not even overreached his own popularity? Impressive. Coryn Valentine…" Vincent mulled softly, his eyes softening as he watched the blonde knight holding a scuffed and irritated-looking Reno and Yuffie in each hand by the scruffs of their necks, "you may actually change a few hearts…and in doing so…you may change the world."

Rufus chuckled, looking up again at Yuffie's perch where she was desperately scanning through the crowd to locate him again. How convenient those drunken partygoers of the city could be. But his brow furrowed slightly, and on second thought he moved behind another platoon of gleaming silver guards. She had unexpectedly spotted him before; he wouldn't underestimate her again.

Rufus absentmindedly stroked Artemis's sleek white mane and winced as he saw another stray streak of charcoal in her hair.

"I knew that using that dye was a bad idea, but really, I expected it to come out by now," he muttered, rubbing the silky fur with his fingers in vain attempt to pull the stain out. He hadn't forgotten the deep, stern lecture that the stable boy (who was three years younger and two feet shorter than he was) had so solemnly delivered as he scrubbed the black fur back to its natural silvery white.

Artemis whickered impatiently and stomped her foot. Rufus shook out of his reverie and slid off of the saddle.

"Rufus! Rufus, your mother is going to kill me if she finds you walking around on the ground!" Tseng hissed irritably, rubbing his temples as he rode up loudly on his midnight black horse, Valkyrie. The sturdy battle stallion pranced tauntingly in front of Artemis, and the beautiful snow-white mare gave an ungainly snap at his flank. Valkyrie almost seemed to grin and stepped delicately out of the way.

"Control your horse, Tseng," Rufus snickered, gently leading Artemis away from the light-footed steer, "And you say that _I'm _terrible at training animals."

"It's not my fault," Tseng growled, delivering a reprimanding snap of the reins, "He's fine when he's not around Artemis, but if she comes around, then he starts to act up again…"

"Oh, I see how it is," Rufus grinned, "So it's all Artemis's fault now?"

"The _point_ is, Rufus-"

"See you back at camp, Tseng!" he said, fading into the faces in the road, pulling up his hood.

Tseng gave a half-exasperated, half-worried growl of acknowledgement and turned Valkyrie around. Once again, Valkyrie was his usual docile self again, and the two of them rode into the camp with an ink-black flag flying high over it. In the center of the cloth was sewn a silver dragon.

The Shinra Family.

Cloud yawned and pulled gently at Arwyn's reins. She snorted and sped up her leisurely lope to a trot, tossing her mane with a huff. They were going to get water from a spring that Cloud had passed on the way to The Edge.

"Sorry, girl, but I can't let you drink from the water troughs in camp," Cloud sighed, "You don't know what's swirling around under the surface. There could be plenty of drugs and poison in there. I heard that one of the Highwind's horses got drugged already."

Arwyn suddenly looked forward and perked her ears, stopping in her tracks. Curious, Cloud followed her gaze to where she was looking.

The beautiful, nameless raven-haired lady was sitting next to the spring.

She and two other ladies were visiting the spring, chatting easily and breaking out into occasional spurts of laughter. She wore a lavender summer dress that brushed her bare feet with her hair drawn loosely up into a ponytail.

To her left was a gentle-looking woman with her chestnut brown hair braided and ribboned with a strip of pink cloth. Her light pink dress reached her calf and her glimmering emerald eyes sparkled with perpetual mirth. In her hands sat a tiny bluebird that flicked its bright, intelligent black eyes from face to face, chirping and cooing.

The last lady splashed in a highly unladylike manner in the spring, heedless of her soaking wet black hair and dripping clothing. Deep amethyst eyes glittered in the sunlight, and unlike the other two women, her movements were quick and sharp, like a rattlesnake's lightning-fast movements. Angled features and willowy frame defined her clear noble descent.

A huge silvery white wolf lay next to her in the water, panting happily with a great lolling pink tongue spilling past sharp, angled teeth. Two lazy sapphire eyes with ink-black slit pupils observed the three of them, glowing softly in the light.

Cloud froze. Did they not see the wolf? It was right beside them, and looked large enough to kill a horse with a single snap of its monstrous jaws. He reached for the sword at his belt and slowly drew it out…

He came hurtling out of the brush, sword drawn, heading straight for the great beast…

A flurry of blue feathers and shrieking chirps exploded from the brunette's hand as the bluebird shot off to safety.

Cloud blinked.

The girl sitting next to him had effortlessly caught his attack, her hunting knife procured from thin air and deflecting his blow. Cloud stopped his attack, stunned. Why would she defend that wolf?...

"So, dear sir," she addressed, one eyebrow rising, "Why would you be attacking Riku?"

"I- what?" Cloud exclaimed, utterly confused, "Did you ask _why_? I think that that's a wolf over there! Wolves aren't tame!"

"Aw, my Riku? A horrible beast? That's not very nice!" she cooed facetiously, "And what of Lady Lockheart and Lady Gainsborough? Are you sure you didn't come here on that pretense?"

Cloud growled.

"I am absolutely sure that is not my meaning, milady," he grumbled, resheathing his sword. His opponent did the same and clicked her tongue.

The wolf stood and shook its glossy fur out before trotting up to the girl. It was just as big as Cloud has imagined it was, standing a good four feet taller than Arwyn and nearly three times as large. Cloud swallowed hard.

"Riku, meet Sir Valentine," she chirruped, stroking the wolf's long, soft fur, "Sir Valentine, meet Riku."

"And you, ma'am?" Cloud queried.

"I am Alexandra Valentine," she said calmly, "of the Valentine family."

Cloud froze again, unsure if she knew he was an imposter or not…

Alex was suddenly leaning in close, whispering in his ear.

"Nii-san told me already. Your secret is very much safe with me," she whispered, leaning back and studying him with the same piercing gaze Vincent had.

He relaxed and turned to speak to the other two women there.

"I am-"

"-Sir Coryn Valentine, I am quite aware," the raven-haired lady completed, her amused eyes focused on his, "I see you still pursue that which you want so desperately."

"I- I actually came to water my horse…"

Arwyn peacefully poked her head out of the brush as she heard her name, her ears perking. She raised one graceful leg and stepped neatly over the small, thorny bushes before lifting her other leg and setting it down.

"I see that you speak the truth," the raven-haired lady said, her eyes curious and genuinely interested in Cloud's abrupt appearance, "I remember you from your first tournament. You were so young and enthusiastic then. It seems you have matured, little bear."

Riku suddenly perked his ears up and looked towards the woods, his bright celadon eyes turned to gaze at the thicket of bushes and trees. His hackles rose and a low growl thrummed deep in his chest as his black lips rose from intimidating razor-edged teeth.

Alex carefully watched Riku and stroked his head.

"Riku says there is a foreign presence intruding upon the forest," she translated, "And it possesses the scent of a metallic weapon."

Riku cocked one ear, but his fur settled and the deep growl coiling in his chest sunk back to a low purr.

"That's strange," Alex said, frowning, "The presence has passed…and is heading for camp. But the gates are closed and any other parties are now barred from entering the contest… I think it may be wise to cut our excursion short and head back to camp now. A report will be filed to the Shinra and the Valentine."

Lady Lockheart and her silent handmaiden stood.

"I agree," Lockheart nodded, "I thank you for showing us this area, Lady Valentine."

"Not 'Lady'," Alex quipped smartly, winking, "Just a handmaiden to you, Teef."

Tifa gave an amused half-smile to her friend and slowly turned to Cloud.

"And it was a pleasure to meet you again, Sir Coryn," Lockheart said, inclining her head, but keeping her gaze steadily matched with his. Alex gave a low, lark-like whistle, and two horses trotted docilely out of the woods.

"Be careful, Lady Lockheart," Alex cautioned once, watching them mount the mares, "Riku intimidated much of the dangerous wildlife from our path before, but without his presence, you may encounter more than just squirrels and wild Chocobos…"

"Don't worry, Alex," Lockheart smiled benignly, "Aerith and I are very capable of protecting ourselves…"

Alex grinned wolfishly, bearing a sudden, startling resemblance between her and her furry companion.

"I do not doubt that, Lady," she nodded, and the two horses trotted into the forest, disappearing into the woods.

Riku leaned down; his legs crouched slightly beneath his body. Alex nimbly leapt on the wolf's back and looked down at Cloud with an amused half-smile.

"It was nice to see you, Sir Coryn. I should hope to see you soon back in camp."

Cloud gave a dazed farewell and watched Riku vanish with astonishing stealth and speed, like a misty phantom evaporating in the full glare of the sun. Arwyn whickered and nudged him closer to the pool of water, reminding him bluntly why they had come in the first place. Cloud's trance was shattered.

"Yeah, see you around, too, _Lady Lockheart_," he murmured, experimentally rolling the name around to savor the knowledge of it, "See you too."

Yuffie glanced worriedly at the dusky sky from her bed of dry hay amongst the stable rafters, surrounded by the smell of horses, dust, and straw. Zack and Reno lounged nearby, basking lazily in the sun. From the ledge, they could see all of the Edge, from the nobles' tents to the peasant houses, and the street filled with multitudes of people milling around, laughing, and bantering lightly as they carried out their evening chores.

"It's been a while since Cloud went to water Arwyn," she noted, "Doesn't it almost seem too long?"

"Chillax, Yuff, I'm sure he's just fine," Reno drawled, "I doubt that anybody could take down our little bear."

"Still, you have to wonder- hey!"

Yuffie bounced onto her feet, staring into the crowd.

"It's Niveus!"

"_AGAIN!!"_ she added mentally.

Zack and Reno jerked at the sound of the name and straightened themselves up. Three pairs of searching eyes found Niveus's rippling black cloak leading the beautiful mare they had seen before. But although its distinctively foreign face and build was the same, this horse was a silvery-white color.

"That's Niveus, all right," Zack concluded, "But what's up with the horse? Wasn't it black the last time we saw him?"

_Now that I think about it, the horse looks exactly like Artemis in white…_

"It was," Yuffie frowned, "Maybe he dyed the horse?"

"If he did, he sure did want anonymity pretty badly," Reno commented, "Not everyone dyes their horses, especially not nobles, who are the only ones that could have enough time to do that…"

Yuffie saw Niveus's hand reach up to stroke Artemis's slightly knotted mane- and in that moment, she saw one prominent feature nobody else saw.

The snake tattoo she had seen before flashed before her eyes- except that now she was able to definitely discern regal, taloned feet, and that it was not a snake, but rather, a dragon.

An four-taloned _royal _Eastern dragon

…Like the Shinra.

Yuffie opened her mouth to exclaim her newly supported finding when Cloud came bursting into the stables on Arwyn's back. Both rider and mare looked exhilarated and refreshed by the sprint to the barn, and Cloud quickly dismounted to wave to his friends.

"Hey," he greeted cheerfully, bright sapphire eyes glowing with pleasure, "How's it been?"

"Lazy," Reno murmured, chewing a piece of hay, "What makes you so hyper today, Cloud?"

"Nothing," he grinned, while his expression clearly stated that something _was_ up and that he simply did not feel like telling them.

Cloud squirreled up the ladder to the hayloft where they were lazing about faster than his burly frame would suggest was possible. Reno and Zack stared, dumbfounded.

"Wow, I haven't seen you move that fast since the last competition a few months ago," Zack finally said, blinking rapidly as if his eyes had misinformed him, "What's got you so happy today?"

"Nothing," Cloud repeated brightly.

Yuffie scowled.

"We both know that there is something going on," Yuffie snapped irritably, "so you'd better cough it up before I have to beat it out of you later."

Cloud winked and refused to comply.

Yuffie sat down huffily, popping a bag of straw and the explosion of little wisps of yellow straw drifted slowly down and settled in her hair. Zack, Reno, and Cloud tried (and failed miserably) to hide a snicker as Yuffie clawed the strands of hay out of her hair. It was going to be a long, _long_ wait until the tournaments started for all four of them.

A/N: Remember that reviews make my inner muse's world go round!! And I really did work hard on this one, so take it gratefully—ahem, RILEY.

Thanks for reading, guys!

The Japanese alcoholic rice wine


	4. The Prince's Secrets

Rufus patted Artemis's broad shoulder. The silver mare whickered and stepped delicately through the masses of unfamiliar faces with an anxious, tensed gait, her ears laid flat on her skull, her movements quick and jerky. But the presence and the scent of her master was there, the feisty little boy that had grown up into a tall, lean adolescent as she had grown from a hobbling little foal to a fully-fledged jousting horse. She breathed in the comforting, ever-so-familiar scent of his favorite white roses and slowly relaxed.

He took an unexpected sharp turn, and Artemis obediently trotted behind him. The crowds pressed in on them again, and the pretty silver horse gave an irritable twitch.

"Shh," Rufus murmured, conspicuous pools of celadon peeking once out from under the dark hood, "I promise that we're almost there."

They continued to pick their precarious way through the crowds, weaving back and forth as they tried to conceal Artemis's clear noble descent and avoid the curious stares that followed them wherever they went.

Finally, at the edge of The Edge, horse and master stood before a thick, dark green forest inked with splotches of deep black shadow. Rufus sighed and flopped in a very un-noble manner on the long grass, and Artemis pricked her ears up at his queer behavior.

"How annoying. She's late again," he said resignedly, staring at the deep woods.

"I am _not_ late!" answered an indignant female voice from the woods, "_You_ were just early."

A huge white form materialized from the gloom, larger than any horse that had ever been bred in all of Gaia. Rufus gave a disbelieving laugh and stood to greet the massive silhouette.

"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up," he snickered.

A great white wolf padded softly out of the woods with Alex sitting atop his back. Two other, smaller white wolves followed, their ears and eyes flicking back and forth restlessly. Rufus stiffened and instinctively reached for the katana at his side, but managed a grudging nod to show he honored their presence. The wolves gave amused glances to one another before lowering their great heads in respect of the Prince.

Strangely enough, Artemis did not panic as Rufus expected. She calmly regarded Alex's unusual companions with a slight cock of her head and gave a friendly whicker in greeting.

"Your horse is clever, I'll grant you that, young Prince," a rumbling masculine voice resonated from deep in the largest wolf's chest, his black lips moving awkwardly to shape the strange words of human speech, "You don't find beasts like her everywhere; keep her healthy and happy and she may share some of that extraordinary intelligence with you."

"I'll take care to keep that in mind, Riku," Rufus replied politely.

The smaller wolf with unusually bright golden eyes flecked with darker amber dots to the left of Riku yawned and snapped halfheartedly at a yellow butterfly flitting past his nose.

"Hello, Princey," he yipped in a much less regal, more childish tone than Riku's, his tail wagging in a loose curve, "It's good to see you again."

"The pleasure is mine, Rex," Rufus answered, a shadow of a smile curling his lip.

"Don't humor his fantasies that his name is Rex," Alex chided, "He insists that the rest of the animals can't pronounce 'Kohaku'."

"They can't!" he whined plaintively, "Even they call me 'Haku'!"

"Well, then, you shouldn't have been born with those handsome golden eyes," Alex snorted, "It's your own fault that you had to be born into a family with a mother that had amber eyes."

Kohaku-Haku-Rex-expialidocious snuffled indignantly and sat down hard.

"Oh yeah, that's real mature," Alex teased sarcastically, "Huffing and puffing like you're gonna blow the house down and then sitting down because you know that Riku would eat you alive and wriggling if you messed up his fur again."

"Hey, don't pick on the little guy," Rufus said playfully.

"Oh, now _he's _the little guy?" the last wolf said in a distinctly feminine tone, her fiery evergreen eyes feigning anger, "What about me? The one that's _named_ after a little lily?"

"Don't get dramatic, Sayuri," Alex retorted, "You actually are pretty small for your age."

Rufus disguised his laugh as a cough as he studied Sayuri's massive proportions.

"Th-that's little where you come from?" Rufus coughed, hiding his smile behind his hand, "I'd hate to see the big ones."

"You'd be surprised how gigantic some of the Ryuuko can get," Alex mused, leaping off of Riku's broad back and sitting on the grass, "But enough of that. I promised those two that they could go play after they escorted Riku and me here."

Alex waved them off with a careless flick of her hand and the two huge wolves went bounding off into the forest, swifter and more silently than their size suggested was possible. Riku collapsed his long legs in the grass next to Alex and gave a huge yawn, displaying his long, oddly pink tongue and razor white teeth.

"I would _hate_ to be your enemy," Rufus commented, raising his eyebrows at as he settled next to Alex, "They're loyal, powerful friends to have."

"Still, they're just kids," Alex frowned, "They don't comprehend the full meaning of what they are bound to do for the rest of their rather lengthy lives like Riku does."

Riku's eye involuntarily twitched as his old battle scar, now barely visible, momentarily burned across the side of his skull. Although now it was just a hair-thin white line streaking from his right ear to the base of his muzzle, he would never forget the time that he almost lost his eye to the lucky swipe of a rebel's katana blade.

"Was that scary at all? Seeing one of your pack go down like that?" Rufus asked Alex suddenly, lost in his own thought.

"Is that _even_ a question?" she answered disbelievingly, "Of course it was! Haven't you ever panicked when a family member gets a wound that starts to bleed?"

"Not really," Rufus slowly responded after a while of silence, "As incredibly cliché as it sounds, I never really see eye to eye with my mother and with my father…but we all know that."

"You who has everything," she mused thoughtfully after a long silence, "and yet has nothing."

"I suppose, until I met Riku and you on that old dusty road that Tseng told me never to walk on," he grinned, reminiscing, "Our little encounter added a little spice to my day. Remind me, what kind of wound did I have that freaked you out so much?"

"You had an arrow through the shoulder, do you not remember?" she said disbelievingly, "It was a black one, with a barbed silver point fletched with white swan type feathers like the ones Sephiroth uses."

A dark frown momentarily flitted across her face, unnoticed by Rufus.

"Oh, now I remember," he continued, "And it was raining and I was freezing and that annoying arrow had some type of paralysis poison dipped on it- and then you showed up."

"And you nearly scared Riku, which is something that you don't want to see," Alex interrupted, "When he's actually scared, he's quite a force to deal with."

"Somehow I don't doubt that at all," Rufus muttered, looking at the Riku's huge, two-and-a-half foot long skull.

"Your father gave me this evil look when I managed to return you to the palace," Alex noted, "and then I got angry at him because it took me absolutely forever to heal that cut and then make you stay awake long enough to give me some answers. He's got a terrible sense of humility."

"Well, that's not much of a surprise, seeing how he can be," Rufus yawned, relaxing on the luxuriously soft and springy long grass.

To both of their surprise, Kohaku and Sayuri suddenly appeared before them again, panting lightly, eyes ablaze with energy.

"There's something in the woods," Sayuri reported, bristling, "I think that it's human, but it smells funny, like it's a crossbreed."

"I forgot to tell them that," Alex yelped, rising quickly to her feet, "I remember, I was supposed to report to them!"

The long-suffering Riku shook out his long silver fur as he stood, casting a halo of dying sunlight across the grass. The sun barely poked from over the horizon now, painting its bright exit in thick brushstrokes on the sky. Alex clambered quickly onto Riku's back.

"We'll have to talk later, there's something in the woods that's bothering me and my pack," she said apologetically, "But I'll give you something to remember me by."

She drew out a silver chain and threw it to Rufus, who caught it and held it up to the rapidly fading light. A small pendant shaped in the form of an Eastern dragon curled around the end of the chain, with two miniscule sapphires for eyes.

"It reminds me of you, don't you agree?" Alex grinned, "Take care of yourself, keep in touch, and watch for my hawks!"

Riku took off, with the two smaller wolves tailing him closely. Artemis calmly trotted over to Rufus and nudged him with her nose.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, I gotcha," he sighed, mounting the horse and pulling his hood back over his head, "We're going home."

By the time the sun had disappeared and the stars had begun to shine, Alex had spread the warning to stay out of the woods and Rufus and Artemis were safely back at camp, getting scolded by Tseng and Elena due to his tardiness.

But something else was just starting to rise.

Jet-black spikes jutted from the muzzle, neck, back, and legs of the silent shadow wolf. Its blank, pupil-less white eyes glowed in the deepening shadows in the forest, and its insubstantial edges wavered like a mirage in the dying sun. Tongues of dark energy licked at the air, curling eagerly away from the wolf's body and further distorting the its outline.

Its disturbing white eyes watched the two humans leave the field, and a deep, inhuman chuckle rolled out into the air from its chest.

The fun was about to begin.

Kadaj glared angrily at the nearest librarian, daring her to say something about a "young'un" like him sitting and reading the thick book of noble bloodlines.

…She had to be at least eighty years old.

"Hello, dear," she nodded in a fragile, cheerful voice, "Are you finding everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Kadaj snapped dismissively, turning his gaze back to the dusty parchment in the book. _Gainsborough, Highwind, Lockheart, Shinra, Valentine, Wallace…_

"Valentine…" Kadaj murmured, flipping quickly to the indicated page. At the top of the yellowing paper was stamped the intricate red rose and black thorns of the Valentine family, and listed below was a detailed map of their family tree.

Kadaj let out a low whistle at the vast, complex diagram laid out on the page.

"Big family much?" he said, tracing each tiny black name with his finger.

Before long his mind had wandered off, and he realized that he hadn't been paying attention to what name he was reading, or what he was looking for. With a moan, Kadaj smacked his head on the book.

"I am sooo going to have a migraine when I'm done finding Coryn," Kadaj thought grimly, squinting to read a blurred inkblot of a name.

Cloud stared up at the stars and the round face of the moon from the hayloft, trying futilely to go to sleep. The excitement coursing through his veins refused to let him fall asleep and yet knew that he risked getting killed if he woke up any of this peacefully slumbering friends. Painfully. Probably torn limb from limb.

Cloud winced at the thought.

Sighing, Cloud propped himself up on a bag of straw and surveyed the other three. Reno snored loudly atop a bale stack on the other end of the hayloft, wispy stalks of hay entwined in his tousled red hair. Yuffie slept at the base of the bale stack that Reno had clambered on top of, coiled in a roughly crafted nest. Zack lay on his side four or five feet away from Cloud on another thick layer of hay, half-curled, his hand resting protectively on the leather-wrapped hilt of Buster Blade.

All four of them were lying out under the open-roofed part of the hayloft, and the full moon softly highlighted the entire world in its glowing white light. Cloud turned his gaze again to the black tapestry of sky, wondering if Lady Lockheart was also enjoying the view from wherever she was camped…

The silent black wolf stalked the deserted roads under the light of the full moon, moving wraithlike towards the gated and barred entrance to The Edge. The velvety pads on its paws hushed its procession, and it ghosted straight through the steel hurdles as if they were not there, unseen and unheard by the animatedly chattering guards. Its frame solidified as it began to approach the nobles' encampment, and a deep purr of satisfaction rolled in its chest as it spotted the highest-flying banner of the silver dragon.

As it continued its soldierly march into the predominantly white, black, and silver tents of the Shinra, its edges blurred and faded again, blending into the darkness around it. The sharp-witted guards guarding the Shinras' camp felt an inexplicable uneasiness fall over them as the phantom wolf swirled past, but even the most watchful of them were incapable of perceiving the living shadow that walked amongst them. The wolf passed them without incident and the guards uncomfortably exchanged looks and shivered before reluctantly returning their gaze to their gate.

The wolf looked once over its shoulder to make sure the guards had not noticed its presence, blank white eyes scanning their souls. The disturbed purple faded from the guards' simple white souls, and the wolf turned its muzzle back to its search when the last tinge of lavender had vanished from the orbs of light.

The wolf inhaled deeply through its nose, tasting the air for the unmistakable scent of its prey…white roses. It soon picked up the scent and let out a low growl of pleasure as it slithered through the tents towards one soul orb that flicked rapidly from one color to the next, bearing the distinct fragrance of roses…

It stopped behind the tent, observing the prey's surroundings. Two other orbs stood guard around the target, steadier and less volatile than the prey. The wolf dismissed the other two souls as just another set of guards and crept closer, its insubstantial paws barely brushing the silver-trimmed black material of the tent. The wolf leaned in closer to the tent, hungrily staring at the souls within. It was so close to the prey, it could almost taste it in the air…

Tseng's expression went from relaxed to alert in less than two seconds. Something lurked just beyond the invisible net he had set up around the tent, gently tickling the slender strings of spun spiritual energy. Elena and Rufus, who had been heatedly debating the most efficient form of assassination, didn't notice Tseng's sudden tension until he waved his hand in a motion that ordered absolute quiet…

The wolf burst the delicate membrane of energy threads woven around the tent and realized just a moment too late that it had tripped an alarm. To its great surprise the two other souls and the prey all stared at it as it pushed its head through the cloth of the tent as if the thick canvas weren't there. How was it possible that humans could see through the invisibility charm? Well, no matter, it would still be able to satisfy its hunger all the same…

Elena immediately tackled Rufus as the wolf reared back its head, sending both herself and Rufus flying a good five feet. But the wolf was quick; its fanged maw still managed to catch the edge of Elena's booted foot as they completed their flight through the air. She let out a gasp of pain and surprise as its teeth raked her foot. Her hand instinctively jerked to grasp the wound- but, to her surprise, there were no jagged gashes.

In fact, the boot wasn't even ripped.

The boot's leather surface glinted dully up at her in the lamplight, untouched by the wolf's serrated teeth- but the pain was definitely there, pulsing in time with her heart.

Elena's amazed stare met Tseng's bewildered eyes as he grimaced and clutched at his right arm. What was this…thing?…

But there was no time to spend pondering on what this wolf-like creature was. The wolf instantly caught itself, mid-snap, and wheeled its huge body around to single-mindedly redirect at Rufus. Elena and Tseng realized that as fast as they may be, the wolf was faster, and heading straight towards the Prince…

"_Sir Coryn…Sir Coryn…CORYN VALENTINE!"_

A large bale of slightly damp hay landed heavily on Cloud's chest. Spluttering and gasping breathlessly for air, he glanced around for the culprit. His eyes narrowed as he searched the dark for Yuffie's nesting spot.

"Yuff-," he began to growl angrily.

"Hush, Sir Valentine," a different, feminine voice huffed crossly, "I suggest that you do not awaken your friends, or this will get considerably more complicated."

Cloud cautiously stared up at a pair of familiar, oddly luminous amethyst irises rimming deep inky pupils.

"_ALEX??_" he hissed disbelievingly, sitting up abruptly, "What are YOU doing _here,_ you insane…wolf-girl??"

Alex- for of course it was she- rolled her cat-like, glowing eyes.

"Yeah, well, _Spiky_, last time I checked, officially we BOTH owned this barn," Alex retorted dryly, flicking her hand between the two of them, "You _and_ me, you know?"

Cloud grudgingly assented and straightened his back completely, rubbing his eyes and squinting at Alex through the drowsy haze.

"So, what're you actually 'ere foh?" Cloud yawned widely, stretching.

"The malicious entity that Riku picked up earlier today just showed up again. It's…a lot stronger than the first time that he sensed it- it's really close," she informed quickly, standing up with a slight rustle of cloth, "It should have been easy for me to eliminate with my companions, but Riku and Sayuri had other business to attend to. So…"

Her eyes settled on Cloud.

"You are coming with me to vanquish the creature," she completed simply, holding out a helping hand. Cloud blinked once at her and sighed before reluctantly taking her hand.

"I guess I could help…I was having trouble falling asleep, anyway…," he yawned again, ruffling his wildly spiky blonde hair, "So, where are we to now?"

"Follow me."

And she turned and leapt…straight out of the barn roof.

Cloud muffled a yelp and rushed over to the edge of the open roof. Sure enough, there was an irritated-looking Alex glaring up at him from all fours on the ground, motioning for him to come down.

"See, thing is, Alex, not everybody possesses creepy cat-like reflexes like you do, and so I will have to take the boring, _NORMAL_ way down," Cloud stage-whispered loudly and obnoxiously enough that Reno stirred from his haphazard position in the hay.

She dismissively waved her hand at him and straightened up as he began to clamber as quietly as he could down the ladder leading to the hayloft. He crept out of the stable, hushing Arwyn's greeting neigh as he creaked the huge door open and shut it again.

"You," Alex growled irately, poking him in the chest with her finger as he emerged from the darkness, "are _exceedingly_ noisy. Maybe I should just strap jingle bells to my shoes next time."

"Oh, give it a rest. You were the one to call me, were you not?" Cloud countered cheerfully, stretching. Alex huffed in a very unprofessional manner and stalked off with Cloud tagging along close behind.

Ten minutes later, Cloud and Alex were crouched behind one of the few, stubborn shrubs that grew in the nobles' camping ground. Alex scanned the grounds and guards carefully before turning to Cloud.

"Okay, it looks like we have around twelve guards protecting the territory. I should be able to get past them as long as you stay really, really close," she whispered, eyes focused on the gates.

"Why again are we sneaking into the most fortified one…?" Cloud asked, staring bewilderedly at the well-armed, stern-faced sentries.

"Because that's where the demon is," Alex quipped smartly, crouching low to gather her energy.

"Oh, oka- wait, _what?_ Did you just say _demon?_" Cloud hissed, tapping her shoulder. Alex smacked him with one hand and became perfectly still. He growled and shuffled over, trying to see what Alex was staring at so intensely.

"Great, now what are we doin-"

Cloud felt Alex snatch his hand and a sudden rush of air before the world swirled quickly back into focus. He doubled over woozily, trying to suppress a sudden, inexplicable queasiness.

"Ughh," he moaned, rolling onto his side, "That did _not_ feel good…"

"Stop mumbling, it's useless and hard to understand," Alex reprimanded primly, smirking at his discomfort.

"Evil…heartless…touchy wolf-girl," he muttered to himself as Alex scanned their surroundings, "What did you just do?"

"Okay, so the demon is…heading towards the north," she said, completely ignoring Cloud's question and starting down the grassy campground. Cloud remained sprawled on the grass, unwilling to get up.

And then her expression shifted from amused exasperation to sudden panic.

Alex went hurtling down the rows of tents quickly enough that the flaps of canvas whipped and strained against the ropes that held them. Dismayed yelps of annoyance and irritated orders barked to servants immediately followed.

Cloud froze and swallowed audibly in abrupt fear.

If they found him here, creeping stealthily amongst the nobles' tents, they would certainly be suspicious and begin an investigation…and an investigation meant that they would prod his past…and if they found out he wasn't the noble Coryn Valentine, but merely the lowly commoner Cloud Strife, then…

Cloud went dashing hastily after her, cursing hotly at the loud jangling that his weapons made and at Alex's rash decision.

"What was that?"

Sephiroth cocked his head up from cleaning the polished blade of his sword as a sudden gale tore momentarily at the pegs that held the gray and green canvas to the ground and subsided as quickly as it had arisen. Yazoo looked up in moderate interest, unusual cat-pupiled eyes flickering to the outside camp where a chorus of complaints was already building.

"Shall I go check it, Masamune-sama?" he asked in a toneless, bored voice that matched his indifferent visage and unruffled eyes, one hand already on the scabbard of his slender katana.

"Do so. I have a feeling that an uninvited guest has paid a rather unexpected visit…" Sephiroth ordered, his gaze still fixed on the shadows flickering outside, "We cannot afford to have the plan interrupted now."

"Hai."

Yazoo left the tent, respectfully bowing his head as he exited.

Sephiroth was left mulling over his gleaming katana, brow slightly wrinkled, lips turned down in a vague frown.

"Strange…I swear that I saw…" he began slowly, examining the flawless silver metal for nonexistent defects, "Or perhaps not…"

But the thought that the mysterious wind had been accompanied by one of the Ryuuko's uniquely different energy imprint never left his mind.

_This is it. I'm going to die._

Rufus was stunned at how incredibly easily and _calmly _that thought came to him, even as death leered as it closed in upon him. The rapidly approaching, gaping maw of jagged black shadow teeth radiated a cold, sick energy that nobody could stop. Not the guards. Not his poor, _true _mother that had already sacrificed enough for him and rested in a better place now. Not even Elena or Tseng, who had sworn with their extended lives to protect him from any and all danger and had even quietly begun to see him as a part of a small, dysfunctional, but true family.

Nobody.

And yet there was no fear, no resentment as the huge jaws descended upon him with a torturous, exaggerated slowness. Only serene happiness. It was the relieved breath that spectators release when the mother coddles the healthy infant close after a particularly difficult birth; it was the sigh of contentment of the priest who had suffered valiantly through this ugly world to help others and was now passing on to a better, brighter place.

And all he could think was that he would see his real mother again.

A small, calm smile spread on his face in contented closure, and his last thought hoped fleetingly that Tseng and Elena would move on and find somebody else to protect and cherish as their own.

…And then all was white. And it _was_ good.

A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I've updated- but, really, I hope that you guys enjoy!! It took me FOREVER. And I think that it's longer than the rest, so…don't kill me! runs to hide in a bush

By the way, did anybody catch the play on words in that last sentence? Can anybody guess where this famous line came from? Kudos to the person who replies and tells me! ;D

Reviews make my inner muse's world go round!


	5. Demons and Premature Wrinkles

This one's dedicated to my dear, patient friend who waited nearly half a year for the other story update, Riley Rose!! XDDDDDDDDD Ah, the things people put up with when the author is lazy…

Also, thanks to stars amongst dust for motivating me to get away from my biology book to update…

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

As physically fit as he was, Cloud's breath came ragged after a while of sprinting, full speed, after the darting black shadow that was Alex.

"How long do this campground _stretch??_" he groaned plaintively, his muscles screaming in protest as she continued to run straight through the neat, endless lines of tents, "Geez, this noble sure is _flashy_ to have this many tents…"

And even as he thought that, Alex stopped.

Confused, he quickly caught up with her and leaned over onto his knees to catch his breath.

"You…couldn't…just…have waited…could…you?" he managed to squeeze between breathless gasps of air, glaring irritably up at her as the campground came to life behind them with much clamor, "You'd better have…an exit strategy…'cause, man are they _annoyed!"_

Alex completely disregarded him, her pupils contracted in fear or shock, her body as tense as a snake about to strike. Fists clenched tightly, she swiveled her head in different directions like a fox, as if tasting the air for something…

And while she did so, Cloud noticed that the tents they had stopped at were a great deal larger than the others.

…and were dyed in the imperial silver and black colors of the royal family.

"Oh no you didn't," he whispered, searching upwards for the insignia.

A regal, elegant, four-taloned Eastern dragon pranced in the wind on the banner above, mouth agape, sparkling eyes glittering coldly and superiorly at him.

"Alex, you do realize that we would be killed on spot if we were seen right now?" he asked quietly, turning to where she stood.

…which was now vacant, replaced by nothing but an empty gust of wind.

Cloud blinked once and swore hotly.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Alex sprinted, her feet barely brushing the earth. Her entire system was on high alert, every sensation increased in sensitivity tenfold…

And there it was, the huge black shadow wolf emitting a dirty, unclean energy stench, its jaws open wide, its guard let down in the giddy, brutal joy of the hunt and the kill…

"I don't _think _so!" she snarled under her breath, taking a long leap off of the ground to go save whichever poor soul had been targeted by the demon…

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Cloud stopped short as he saw a slight shimmer in the air outside of the tent Alex was rushing at.

"What the…"

As he stared, the image of a wolf slowly began to appear, starting with its faint outline and ending with the see-through gray coloring of its fur. He blinked to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"A…demon?"

"Coryn, _HELP!_"

The desperate, screeched plea for assistance sent him into an automatic response. No matter what kind of investigation would take place because of his interference, he would not desert somebody in need just to save his own skin.

Drawing the Buster Blade along the way, he leapt up to attack the…thing, fully expecting the sword to go straight through the ghostly apparition.

To his ultimate surprise, it sunk wickedly into the gray flank of the creature with a sickeningly satisfying thunk.

It screamed an unearthly cry of anger and pain, and it whirled to attack its new opponent. Cloud dropped back to the earth, his sword still deeply embedded in the wolf's leg, and looked up in horror.

The creature's wrathful white eyes had no pupils.

Letting out a deep, guttural growl, the wolf dove for him, sharp, jutting teeth reaching for him. Reflexively he rolled out of the way, neatly dodging the attack and retrieving his sword in the same fluid movement. The blade made a nasty _schtiick_ as it dragged out of its leg, and the wolf let loose another hair-raising shriek.

Hurt and angry, it turned slowly to face him, its injured hind leg dragging uselessly behind it. Blazing white eyes glared ferociously at him before it completely vanished, whistling away with a stray gust of wind.

Then Cloud felt a sudden, agonizing throb in his shoulder as the creature fled, and he just had enough time to vaguely realize that the wolf's teeth had managed to graze his shoulder before he passed out.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

"Cloud…"

He heard Zack's worried voice call his name distantly, and he struggled to answer. But the blackness held him fast, like toxic, tarry black ooze that engulfed everything in its suffocating eclipse…

"Cloud, please wake up…"

It was Yuffie now, her cheery voice truly forlorn. He thrashed more against the immense pull of the sickly darkness that poisoned heart, mind, body, and soul…

"Cloud!"

A sudden flash of white burned away his bonds, and he was freed, heading straight for the sound of their voices…

…He awoke with a sudden intake of breath on his back, his eyes snapping open to survey the ebony tapestry of the sky, studded with diamond stars…and of course, the anxious faces of his friends.

Yuffie, for once, had glimmering tear streaks marking her cheeks, her nose rather comically sniffly and red from crying. Zack's mild expression was set in a steely frown that looked like it would leave a permanent wrinkle on his brow, and even Reno's lax, easy-going face had managed to pull a terse look of worry.

"_Cloud_!"

Yuffie smacked him—hard—across the head, sending him back into a dizzying spiral before choking him with one of her killer hugs.

He spluttered and coughed, choking for air before Reno and Zack dragged the little girl off of him.

"Remember, Yuff, he just got done with being mauled by a wolf," Reno cautioned in his familiarly irritating manner, "He doesn't exactly need to be mauled by a crazy Yuffie, either."

Yuffie shot him a scowl and turned back to Cloud.

"Hey man, you look like you just came back from the dead," Zack grinned, smacking his best friend on the back with his hand, "Did you miss the chance to see the pearly gates?"

"Ha, ha, ha, we both know that I probably wouldn't make it three steps there, seeing as how I'm not a 'noble'," Cloud replied sarcastically, slowly rising to his feet, "Where's Alex?"

"She went over there," Reno shrugged, jerking a thumb casually back at a crowd that thronged around one of the tents, "to take care of somebody else. Apparently he got a _really _bad wound from the wolf or whatever it was."

When Reno said 'wound', Cloud remembered the gash that had knocked him out in the first place. His hand flew up to touch the shoulder—but, to his surprise, there was nothing there. Yet it did ache sorely, like somebody had managed to land a really good hit on him while jousting.

"Is there something wrong with your arm?" Zack asked, concern creasing his brow yet again.

"Stop frowning, buddy, you'll get premature wrinkles," Cloud snorted, poking his friend's forehead. Zack rolled his eyes.

Reno stared thoughtfully as the crowd began to disperse, enthusiastically encouraged to leave by two menacing knights dressed in strange, flanged black armor, wielding bizarre, slightly curved swords.

"Hey guys, don't you think we should go visit that guy that Cloud saved?" Yuffie piped up, her normal sunny attitude miraculously restored.

Zack took one look at the silently looming guards that stood on either side of the door and answered promptly.

"Absolutely _not._"

Yuffie pouted cutely and crossed her arms tightly in front of her chest.

"Well, why not? Whoever he is, he should be grateful to Cloud for saving his life, noble or not! I'm going!" she declared, stomping off towards the tent before Zack or Reno could do anything to stop the determined little squire.

Cloud chuckled and trailed along behind the three of them, wondering how the scene would play out…

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

"Excuse me."

Yuffie stood adamantly in front of one the knights, her feet planted, her arms crossed in determination.

"I believe that the resident of this tent owes my friend a thank-you," Yuffie declared, motioning towards Cloud, who was cautiously bringing up the rear of the group.

One of the black-armored knights turned its head to look at Cloud. Silently it turned to exchange looks with the other knight before turning back to Yuffie.

"You will have to wait," the knight replied firmly, "He is currently unavailable. Please return at a later time."

"I don't think you understand me," Yuffie plowed on, her eyebrow furrowed, "Coryn Valentine saved this person's life. He should be so grateful—"

"Again, apologies, but I can only ask you to return later. He is currently unavailable," he repeated blandly.

"Uh…Yuffie, it's okay, we can come back later, you know…" Cloud trailed off hesitantly, anxiously observing Yuffie's steadily increasing indignation. Zack and Reno restlessly edged away from the little vixenly squire, hoping to escape the impending—and inevitable—explosion of her wrath…

Yuffie was an inch away from physical violence when a voice called from behind them.

"It's all right, Tseng. I can vouch for them."

They turned, and Cloud recognized the woman in pink that he had met at the spring just a few hours before. What had Lady Lockheart called her again? Aerith?

As she got closer, he also realized that she, too, had one of the most gorgeous faces among the noble families. She had a flawless face—cream skin sprinkled with light ginger freckles, framed by thick, braided brown hair, gently sloping cheeks and nose, perfectly curved hunting-bow lips, and long, thick lashes softening doe-like emerald eyes.

But Cloud couldn't help but thinking that she was not Lady Lockheart…

The knight inclined his head in a reverent deferral.

"Milady Gainsborough."

"Would you mind letting them through, Tseng? I give my word that they would never hurt him," she appealed again, her voice soft but decisive. Yuffie frowned. She'd heard that name before somewhere…Tseng…

The two knights exchanged looks again.

"I would gladly, my lady, but unfortunately, he _is_ actually…unavailable…," the knight replied in a perplexed voice, "We could host them tonight, if that would please you instead…?"

Lady Gainsborough smiled gently.

"Of course. Thank you very much, Tseng. And do give him my regards," she nodded graciously, turning to Yuffie, Cloud, and Reno.

"I'm sorry, but it appears that you'll have to wait a little while longer here for an audience with Sir Shinra. I presume you have no objections?" she queried, her lilting voice imploring them for a reply.

"Of course we wi—"

"—on't," Cloud replied, cutting off Reno's answer, "I think that it would be better if we returned in the morning, perhaps when he is feeling better?"

Reno gave Cloud a bewildered look that Cloud determinedly ignored.

"Well…unexpected, but it is thy decision. Tseng, could you await them in the morning? It looks as if Sir Valentine has gotten cold feet," Aerith said, an amused smile curling her lips, "Good night to thee."

As she floated gracefully past, Cloud swore she whispered, "And Lady Lockheart sends her regards to you as well…dear knight."

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

"What was _that_ all about?" Yuffie yawned as the trundled sleepily home, "You sounded so anxious to leave, Cloud."

"Yeah, really," Reno chimed in, his hands laced behind his head as he sauntered, "Are you feeling okay? We could have stayed in the lap of luxury for a night. And the Shinra is the ruling noble party—they're probably the richest of them all."

Cloud sighed.

"I don't think you understand that I wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. The only reason I didn't get caught was because everyone else was throwing a hissy fit," Cloud explained, his senses still jangling faintly from the adrenaline rush of his fight with the wolf. He frowned. What had that thing been, anyways…? He would definitely ask Alex next time—

Oh, wait. _Alex._

Cloud froze.

"Did you see a girl with a black braid and full battle armor when you came into the nobles' camp? Holding a katana?" Cloud demanded, rounding on Zack. Zack blinked in surprise at the intensity of Cloud's sudden outburst, and he shook his head in slight confusion.

"No, why? Is she a friend of yours?" Zack asked, echoing Yuffie's yawn, "I didn't see anyone by that description…"

Cloud sighed. Based on her previous display of speed, she was probably on her way out of the Shinra camp right now.

…Probably.

He sighed again. Why was it that he was the only one that seemed to suffer from compulsive reactions to help damsels in distress?…even if Alex didn't quite fit into the 'innocent and helpless' type…

"I'll go visit tomorrow to make sure she escaped," he muttered to himself, trying to relieve the tight knot of guilt that was starting to form in his stomach, "I'll go straight to the Shinra tent and ask them if they saw her escape."

"What was that?" Reno asked sleepily, barely catching the end of Cloud's soliloquy, "Repite, por favor…"

"Ah, it's nothing," Cloud replied, hiding a smile as Yuffie staggered into Reno, almost unconscious on her feet. Unable to take the weight, Reno lost his balance and both of them fell in the street, asleep before they hit the ground.

Zack yawned drowsily and looked like he was about to face plant in the dust before sighing resignedly and yanking Reno's lanky form out of the dust.

"'M awake, I swear," Reno slurred fuzzily as Zack dragged him forward, "Heard every word you said…I agree with Zack…"

Cloud sighed and picked Yuffie off of the ground, and the two spiky-haired friends completed the journey down the street together, both of them glad for the burden of having an improvised—if not legitimate—family to take care of.


	6. Another Mystery and Dresses

Thank you for your patience! Enjoy! (and possibly review) :)

* * *

Tseng and Elena both gazed, helpless, as the wolf's jaw passed _through_ Rufus's vulnerable form. The serrated teeth left no physical mark on the prince, but Tseng felt a horrible sense of displacement in the invisible injury, of wrongness so great that it was undetectable by the eyes alone. Rufus slid to the ground, and the shadowy wolf leaned down again to finish off its defenseless prey.

A swift purple and black slash of color swept past, spiriting away Rufus's still body. The wolf jerked in surprise, shaking its muzzle in fury and shock.

"Coryn, _HELP!_"

All hell had broken loose at that point in time as the wolf's translucent form retreated from the tent and a horrific scream of pain sounded in the air. The two of them looked at each other worriedly for just a moment before running outside to see what had happened.

A silver blade arced through the air and into the ground. There was a fellow noble sitting in front of the wolf, stunned by the transparency and sheer size of the monster. Tseng noted briefly the characteristically spiky blonde hair crowning the knight's head…

The wolf vanished suddenly with a mournful echo of the wind, and all was completely still.

The unidentified knight abruptly collapsed to the ground, his body shuddering spasmodically even as they watched. Elena instantly rushed forward, about to aid the knight, when another noble seemed to materialize at his side, staggering under the weight of a motionless figure in its arms. A black braid tossed in the air, and Elena relaxed.

"Nice timing, Alex," she called as she approached the petit noblewoman. But oddly enough, Alex did not even answer, instead placing the inert form on the ground and checking for signs of life.

Elena's heart froze at the sight of an all-too-familiar form lying limply on the grass, eyes halfway open but unseeing, the slightest touch of a smile gracing deathly still white features. This could _not_ be happening…

Alex leaned close to Rufus, two fingers pressed to his wrist, feeling for a pulse, her ears searching for even the slightest breath. A look of faint relief passed over her face as she spoke to Tseng and Elena.

"He's alive, but barely. Elena take care of Rufus for me," Alex ordered quickly, her tone brooking no argument, "Take him somewhere quiet—we don't need this news to be spread all over the place. Once you have your place, don't let _anybody_ in unless they are _specifically_ associated with the Ryuu branch of the Valentine family. Tseng, you go to the Valentine stables and call to the upper hayloft. Cloud's acquaintances are staying there, and I need them to come here. Tell them it's urgent, and do what you must to get their attention. _You cannot take 'no' for an answer. _Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

Tseng and Elena murmured affirmative responses. Elena leaned down to carry Rufus's frighteningly limp form. Tseng paused as he began to walk out of camp, however, as he recognized the blonde knight's face.

"Hey…it's that knight that we saw back at that outskirt city," Tseng noted, tapping Elena gently on the shoulder, "Coryn Valentine, if I'm not mistaken…"

"Which you never are," Alex responded, a wan smile on her face, "I'll take care of him first; his wounds aren't nearly as bad as the prince's."

Tseng and Elena quickly looked over the unconscious noble, whose tremors had yet to fully subside. With his light blonde locks and tall, stocky form, he looked nothing like the usual dark-haired, svelte members of the Valentine family. Elena and Tseng exchanged curious looks, eyes meeting briefly before they turned to leave their separate ways, their black robes fluttering in the night like ravens' wings as they dissolved into the blackness.

Oblivious to the other knights' visual exchange, Alex fumbled at her waist for a moment before drawing out a tiny silver necklace. She dropped the necklace in a pile of tangled metal in Cloud's twitching hand and then placed her hand firmly over his fingers and the chain.

"Cloud, I know you're a fighter," Alex said to Cloud as she watched him continue to shudder, "Don't fall into the black yet. Wait for your friends. They will help bring you to the light."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Valkyrie ran hard and fast as Tseng urged the horse to a gallop. The black stallion was fully enjoying his first sprint in several weeks, and Tseng swore Valkyrie snorted in irritated frustration as he gently tugged on the reins to slow down.

Tseng surveyed the stable from behind his hood as Valkyrie's ears perked up, listening to the minute shuffles and snuffles from inside of the building.

The Valentine stable was a large, comfortably worn black housing unit with a fully enclosed lower level with individual stalls for the horses and a spacious, roofed hayloft in the upper level to protect the straw from rain and mildew.

A small, bright red head poked in full view of window, and Tseng could almost guarantee he heard the muted sound of obnoxiously loud snoring.

A smile pulled at the edge of Tseng's mouth. It was precisely this type of job that he enjoyed thoroughly as a knight under the Shinra command.

Tseng dropped to the earth, the specially bound soles of his riding boots muffling the thud of his feet. He bent down, plucked a stone from the packed earth of the street, and grinned in a highly unprofessional manner as he threw the rock.

A satisfying _thunk_ echoed in the air as the stone collided with the jester's head, followed by a pained howl. Tseng quickly put his foot in the stirrup of Valkyrie's saddle and swung his leg over, securing his hold with the reins. Then he waited, his dark onyx eyes watching carefully for any movement from the hayloft.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"_What the—?_"

Reno's bright green eyes flew open and his hand immediately came to rub his sore skull as he felt a bright explosion of pain on the top of his head. An innocent-looking stone sat forlornly in the hay next to him.

Growling, Reno glared out the hayloft window, expecting to see a drunk commoner stumbling about in the street.

Instead he saw a black-cloaked rider on an ebony horse, standing tauntingly in the street, head cocked curiously as if daring him to follow. Reno's eyes narrowed, and he leapt at Zack, landing squarely on top of the other squire's arm.

Zack yelped, sitting bolt upright. He found Reno's familiar face and suddenly. a maniacally murderous look crossed his face.

"Reno," Zack growled through gritted teeth, "I swear, if you just woke me up because you and Yuffie had another argument, I will throttle you both, so help me—"

"No, no, no, Zack," Reno said, shaking his head, "There's a guy standing down in the street, and he hit me in the head with a rock! I think he wants us to follow him somewhere."

Zack rolled his eyes.

"Oh _please_, Reno, let's not get too dramatic," Zack sighed, rolling over in his bed of hay.

Another stone whistled through the air and cracked Zack solidly on the skull as if to support Reno's admittedly dubious statement.

"OW!" Zack yelped, jerking out of his sleepy stupor, "What was _that?_"

"Now do you believe me?" Reno groused irritably, shuffling over to Yuffie's hay nest, "C'mon, Yuff, we have a visitor."

"Five more minutes…" Yuffie mumbled in a muffled voice through the hay.

Reno smirked and pushed a bale of straw and hay on top of her.

The breath whooshed out of her lungs with an audible puff of air, and Reno barely managed to disguise a laugh as a mangled cough.

"What in _Jenova's_ name could be _so _important…?" Yuffie choked breathlessly, shoving the soggy lump off of her chest.

A sharp, almost impatient whinny rang through the air, and all three of them froze and glanced at one another before rushing to the window.

In the street below a gleaming ebony horse reared, tossing its mane and kicking its legs as its black-cloaked rider clung to the reins.

The black-cloaked rider…?

Yuffie yelped in surprised recognition and skittered to the ladder. She slid down without regard for the rungs and leapt straight onto the bare back of Terra, her small russet mare.

"Yuffie?" Zack called in confusion as Terra pawed and pranced anxiously towards the barn doors, "What's the rush—?"

"It's Niveus!" she yelled back, as Terra charged towards the doors at full speed, "Come quickly, maybe we can figure out who he is—!"

SLAM.

Terra burst out of the stables, sprinting after the lean black horse in the streets. The horse screamed again and took off like a lightning bolt, its feet seeming to float above the ground as it ran, with Yuffie in hot pursuit.

Reno and Zack finally jerked into action as the chase proceeded swiftly out of sight, cursing and fumbling as they unlocked the stables, mounted their disoriented horses, and herded them out the doors. And soon all was still again in the Valentine barn as the air settled again, suave and serene…

Tseng kept effortlessly ahead of Yuffie, his cloak whipping in the breeze. He felt Valkyrie pouring yet more speed into his stride as the noble camp came into view, the stallion eager to get back to the stables. A quick glance backwards revealed Yuffie struggling to pursue, only now rounding the corner towards the camp.

"Perfect," Tseng breathed. He reached his hand out and made a quick, slashing motion to the side at the makeshift gates of the Shinra camp. The wooden bars slammed open, and as the guards came pouring out, yelping and haphazardly strapping on greaves and gauntlets as they waved their swords about, Tseng quickly flashed the white emblem of the Shinra at them. Almost immediately they recognized the distinct black coil on the snowy background, and the flood of guards slowly receded, starting to shut the gates.

"Oh _NO_ you _DON'T! _Not_ this _time you little _CHEAT!"_

Startled again, the guards ran out, ensuring they would catch the intruder this time.

Yuffie's plucky little brown mare sprinted through the gates, flouncing the guards on either side. As the guards yelled panicked orders to each other in their befuddlement, trying to chase Yuffie on her quick-footed horse and close the gates once more, Reno and Zack raced in, slamming the gates open for the third time in less than twenty seconds with another deafening crash.

Tseng winced. Rufus was not going to be happy with him for this stunt, with Alex's permission or not…

Rufus.

With a heart-wrenching jolt, Tseng remembered why it was that he had led these poor people on such a wild goose-chase around town. With another light kick to Valkyrie's sides, he hurtled forward, making sure that Yuffie could see the end of his coat vanish at the edge of the Prince's quarters.

Tseng pulled back his hood and nodded briefly to Alex as he streaked by. Kneeling next to the blonde knight, pressing a small silver trinket into his limp hand, she gave a terse jerk of her head. Her gaze tracked back out to see Yuffie, Reno, and Zack round the corner, and Tseng managed to sigh in relief before slowing an indignant Valkyrie to a halt and dismounting. He breathed in and out for a couple of precious seconds, slowing his heart rate and erasing any evidence of his previous night ride.

And then, pulling on the flanged helmet feared so much by the Shinra's enemies, Tseng stepped back into the open, taking his rightful, honored place on the other side of the Shinra tent.

No wonder Elena shot him a strange look when he couldn't help but smile at remembering Reno's stupidly shocked face.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Ahh, baka…"

Cloud buried his nose deeper into the hay, unwilling to leave the little nest of warmth he had created for himself beneath the straw. Maybe if he just ignored her, she'd get the idea and go away…

Or maybe, just _maybe_, Chocobos would fly.

_BAM._

Eyes watering from the hit on the head, he winced and looked up at an irate Yuffie. She sniffed down at him and toed a scroll to him before turning away.

"Some snobby knight came by this morning and told me to give this to you," she growled, arms crossing tightly, "I would have opened it, but apparently there's some sort of seal on it, because I tried to pry it open and even took a fire to the thing and it wouldn't burn."

Cloud picked up the rolled-up parchment and peered at the seal carefully. Black wax, with a long silver ink line drawn in a coiled, regal position within it…

"The Shinra?" he asked in surprise, looking up at Yuffie.

"Yeah," she snapped, huffing and sitting on a bale of hay, "It's a summons for you. Or, at least, that's what the messenger said before I scared him away."

Cloud's lips twitched, but he managed to bite back a smile.

"Right…well, we might as well visit the Shinra's place to check up on that guy we saw last night before we go to the 1st round matches, anyway," Cloud yawned, "Let's see…"

_Coryn,_

_I know who you are. I cannot tell you why I contacted specifically you or where I watch from. I cannot tell you how I know this information, and, most importantly, I cannot tell you who I am. I am sorry for the secrecy, but we have a situation. You must trust me on this one…Cloud._

Cloud looked up, alarmed.

"Where did you say you got this?" he asked Yuffie, swallowing hard. Whoever this was…knew he was a fake…

"Uhh…some messenger…from Shinra. Why?" she answered, taking the letter from him. Her eyes scanned the first few lines—and then stopped, widening.

"How…how did they…?"

Cloud snatched it back from her as Zack and Reno crowded in, clamoring to read it as well. He read aloud:

_If this letter gets to you, then the royal family has been compromised. I have found a traitor in their midst, but I am having difficulty in finding our sneaky little weasel. The little __bast__ I mean, _**snitch**_ is buried deep, and his tracks are few—it will take me time to fully unveil him. _

_So, if you would so kindly oblige, please help me. Buy me a little more time for me to do some sneaking and hunting, and I can catch him. Use all of those flashy moves that you know are completely useless in actual combat, impress the crowd, win their love—they will not care so long as you entertain them. Time of the essence, and the clock is ticking. Five days is ideal, but if you are unable, try for four. _I need this help, Coryn.

_Give the crowd what they want, and you may even earn yourself legitimacy._

_Your Friend,_

_XIII _

Reno was the first to break the ensuing silence with a loud, obnoxious snort.

"Well, isn't that conveniently mysterious?" he sneered, "And really? The nickname 'Thirteen' is _SO _clichéd. Might as well come up with something more interesting, like Niveus or summat like that…"

They gaped at him.

"Reno. RENO. _They. Know. Who. I. AM!_" Cloud yelped, "Do you not _get _how _dangerous_ this is?!"

Reno glanced over at him dubiously.

"Well, just like the note said, Thirteen won't say anything as long as you do what he/she/it tells you to do," Reno stated simply, "I don't get what the big deal is."

Cloud frowned at the page.

"But it doesn't say anything like tha—"

"Honestly, Cloud, I'm reading between the lines," Reno said loftily, leaning back on a bale of straw, "They basically just want you to make a huge fuss about your victories from now on, and they'll keep their mouths shut."

"Oh, it's only easy for you to say because you've been in trouble so often," Yuffie grumbled, turning back to Cloud, "I'm worried. If one person could have figured this out, then other people could, too…"

"…Let's talk to Vincent about it," Cloud finally said, still staring at the piece of paper, "Maybe he'll have some answers, or even a clue as to who might have sent this to me…"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Under the hot sun of the early morning, the nobles had collected under a large white tent with the black dragon emblazoned on its canopy. Fruits and light pastries were offered to the roaming people and gleaming silver goblets sweated as the water condensed on their sides. The men milled about aimlessly, exchanging cordial greetings and petty pleasantries; the women fanned themselves breathlessly even in the shade of the tent, whispering and giggling at one another. But amongst the nobles meandering about, their thin masks of false amicability in place, there was one small group that the other nobles seemed to flow around, ignoring its very existence.

"Gahh," Alex Valentine huffed angrily at the very center of the group, tugging at the hem of her simple black dress, "Jenova curse the idiot who invented the idea of a brunch meeting." Compared to the complex patterns of silk and foams of frothy lace dripping off of the other noblewomen, plain Alex stood out like a raven amongst doves. In a loose ten-foot radius around her, many men and women with vaguely similar features—black hair, dark eyes, sharp features—chatted amiably with each other, oblivious of the stigma they exuded. The entire attending Valentine family was dressed in some form of dusty, worn, black clothing.

That is, everyone except for Alex.

She scowled again and glared evilly up at the tall, raven-haired man standing quietly at her side.

"I hate you _so_ much, _Vinnie_," Alex snarled under her breath, crossing her arms and glaring openly at an innocent noble who appeared to be approaching them.

"Yes, yes, I love you too, little sister," Vincent Valentine chuckled amusedly, dark red eyes somehow twinkling beneath dark hair and shadowing brows, "And by the way, that '_idiot_' who came up with brunch meetings happens to be the ruling monarch of all of Gaia."

Her nose crinkled.

"Then I redouble my previous statement," she growled, "That stupid _bataârd_ is actually the most despicable, disgusting thing I have met in my life…and that's counting the time I had to crawl through Junon's entire 'disposal system' to hunt down that _freaking_ Oculo amulet…"

Vincent smirked a little at Alex.

"Those words are treason, if I may remind you, darling, dear sister mine," he murmured, leaning over to speak to her, "And may I also remind you that if you had not gotten Cid drunk and knocked him out, you would not have had to 'crawl through Junon's entire 'disposal system' to hunt down that _freaking_ Oculo amulet."

Alex's frown deepened and the nobles inched further away from the unhappy-looking lady.

"Have I told you how much I hate you recently?" she grumbled, sipping from a silver goblet and glancing around the tent again.

"No, but please do tell after I come back," Vincent murmured softly, striding forward, his lean frame almost ghostly in its black clothing, "Coryn has arrived…"

Alex almost choked and quickly looked towards Vincent's direction. Sure enough, a redhead, a pixie, a bear-like male, and spiky blonde locks were headed her way…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Sheesh, these nobles sure like their parties, don't they?" Yuffie muttered out of the side of her mouth to Reno, "It's really different from the slums…"

The men were dressed in various states of costume, from full armor to elegant suits of plum purple or forest green. The ladies were a riot of color, varying from shades of pastel yellow to the faintest shade of aquamarine blue, like a flock of tropical birds trying to outdo all of the others. There was never more than one person wearing one specific outfit.

All of them, however, looked better than Cloud and his motley crew. The nobles took note of their drab fatigues and riding boots and sneered to themselves, turning away.

Reno glanced at Yuffie curiously.

"Is this the first time you've ever seen a noble encampment? This isn't a party—Jenova, no, the parties are much more extravagant. This is more of an…informal meeting, I suppose you could say."

"Then what do their parties look like?" Zack mumbled, eyes wide with shock. A pretty brunette girl fluttered by in a pink sundress, her long braid swaying down her back. After a moment she turned to him, blinking vivid green eyes.

She was gorgeous.

A flawless cream complexion sprinkled with small freckles sloped smoothly from light pink lip to cheek to eye in a fluid arc. Light brown strands of hair floated in front of perfectly symmetrical, gently curved features.

"Oh, you must be Zack," she smiled, and the whole area seemed to glow, "I remember you! I'm Aerith Gainsborough. From the Shinra camp fiasco yesterday?…"

"O-oh," Zack finally managed to stutter, "Oh, yeah…"

_Nice, Zack,_ he growled at himself mentally, _Great job. "Oh yeah"? Is that seriously the best you could come up with?_

"You seem a little lost—do you want to join me? I'm just heading over to say hello to the Valentines," she offered, grinning kindly, "I think you'll feel a little more at home with them."

"Uh—oh, okay, sure," he nodded, returning her smile awkwardly, feeling extremely small and unimportant, "Yeah. That'd be great."

Zack turned back to his still-mystified friends.

"Hey, uh…Aerith said she'd take us to the Valentine family," he whispered, "It'd be a good place to start, right?"

"Yeah," Cloud agreed, following Zack as he began to walk away, "Let's go."

Little snippets of gossips drifted into their ears as they followed Aerith, and they unconsciously began eavesdropping on the conversations of the people they passed by…

"…ridiculous, the Crown Prince would never be targeted…He's the sweetest noble around, why would anybody want to kill him?"

"…shocking, I know, who would dare try to assassinate the king's son, here, in Midgar, the frontier! I mean, the king himself is here, presiding over the games…"

"…completely unwarranted, he's quite dear. Not nearly as wild as my troublesome Nicholas.."

"…unexpected. I mean, my own boy is dear friends with Rufus Shinra, and from what I've heard, he's a very well-guided, conscience-driven young man…don't think it was anything on his part…"

"…goofball, yes, but all love him for his mischief…"

"…rumors true? That the Crown Prince _died_ last night?"

Cloud's blood froze at the last sentence he heard. From looking at the expressions on his friends faces, they had heard as well.

"_Dead?"_ Zack mouthed to him, eyes huge with wonder and alarm.

"…We're here."

Aerith's voice snapped them back into focus, and they thanked her for leading them to the Valentines. Sure enough, a little knot of men and women, all garbed in slightly frayed black work clothing in sharp contrast to the others' carefully planned outfits, talked cheerfully within their little bubble of insulation. It seemed that none of the other nobles were willing to affiliate themselves with the Valentines.

"Is it just me, or is there a…perimeter around the Valentine family?" Reno queried, eyebrow cocked, "Nobody approaches them, and they are quite…ah…_differently_ dressed…"

"You noticed," she approved, "Yes, there's a certain measure of awe and respect the Valentines command from their peers…especially since Alex and Ru—"

She suddenly cut off, her hand flying up to touch her mouth.

"What was that about Alex and Rufus?" Yuffie asked, her eyes bright with interest.

"Uhh…nothing," Aerith replied quickly, blushing, "I…didn't say…anything…"

"Uh-huh," Yuffie snickered, "You can tell us now. It's already out of the bag."

"Well, I have to go now," Aerith said hurriedly, "I do need to talk to Sam, after all…"

Yuffie chuckled, amused, as the pretty noblewoman scurried off.

"She's cute," Reno noted to Zack, whose gaze still trailed after her, "And she's really nice for a noble. You saw her last night. Sweet as a doe."

"…And totally out of my league," Zack sighed wistfully, finally looking away. "Life sucks."

"Oh, the troubles I've seen," Reno said sympathetically, patting Zack on the shoulder and snatching a pastry off of a passing tray. "Cheer up, buddy. Have an éclair."

Cloud jerked his head up.

"Hey, there's Vincent! And…_Alex?"_

Sure enough, Vincent flowed towards them, his red cloak billowing slightly. Alex—in a black dress—hurried after him.

"Uhh…Alex? What…happened to you? I…uh…never pegged you as a dress kind of person, but…"

"Freaking dresses," she snarled furiously, eyes dark with anger. "Don't make fun. I hate it just as much as you're surprised by it."

Vincent rolled his eyes. "So dramatic. Almost like Sayuri."

Alex scowled and punched him lightly in the arm. "Not funny."

"How's the guy you were taking care of? I heard afterwards somebody actually got hurt pretty badly by the thing," Cloud asked immediately, worry creasing his brow, "Did he make it out okay?"

"Yeah…eventually," Alex answered, her voice and eyes suddenly very controlled and uninflected. "It'll take a while to heal completely, but he should make a full recovery with a little time and rest."

Her brow twitched.

"Although he seems to be a little too stubborn to listen to what I say," she tacked on, her voice lowering to a dull mutter of discontent as she lifted the goblet to her lips.

"Mm, if I were in my right mind, I'd hardly listen to you, either, Lex," Vincent said almost absentmindedly.

Before Alex could punch Vincent again, Cloud shoved the small scroll into Vincent's gold gauntlet. Vincent's face shifted to a momentary look of surprise.

"The Shinra seal? What are you doing with this, Coryn?" Vincent questioned, wine-red eyes meeting his troubled glacier blue as he unrolled the paper. His eyes scanned it briefly.

"Do you know anything, anything at all about this?" Cloud asked desperately, his old panic returning as he spoke, "Please tell me you do, because if you don't know, then nobody knows…"

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please?" a herald in an all-white uniform piped, interrupting Vincent, "In honor of the ruling family, our symbol of strength, and the main pillar of our country's beloved government, I present to you your lord and His Highness…King Shinra."

Cloud hushed and watched as a horse trotted in, its neck sturdy, its legs corded with muscle. But, strong and healthy as it was, the stallion barely listened to his rider's commands—unlike Aryn and Cloud, who worked together as a single unit, the horse and rider had two different agendas, tied together by some unfortunate twist of fate. The horse's flighty nature manifested as it whickered uneasily, ears laid flat, chomping at the bit.

An attendant rushed forward, taking the reins from the man's grasp as the noble dismounted from his unhappy steed. The monarch stepped forward into the relative shade, and Cloud saw King Shinra—the man he was expected to fight and die for as a faithful constituent and noble of Gaia—for the first time in his life.

The man was dressed in silvery white armor, its sharply wrought edges swathed in a thick, dark red cloak. The distinctly four-taloned Eastern dragon reared silently on his tunic, and Cloud noticed the crown grasped in its right claw, signifying his control of the throne. An ornamented scabbard and sword hung at his waist, the hilt and sheath both encrusted with glittering diamonds and inlaid with elaborate silver patterns.

The king was stockily built, with broad shoulders and plenty of muscle on forearm and bicep. His solid form and tall frame neatly matched his shadowing, wide brow, lightly pockmarked skin, and strong jaw. In his considerable age, his hair had faded from a light blonde to strands of gray and white, but his presence still commanded a great deal of respect. Deep-set blue eyes glared out formidably from his altogether almost bestial visage.

Yuffie frowned a little bit. He looked ever so faintly like someone she knew…

King Shinra reminded Cloud of a bear or a wolf with his sharp gaze and permanently frowning features. His massive figure rivaled even Cloud's burly jousting form, and Cloud instantly knew that he would never, ever want to face King Shinra in hand-to-hand combat.

"My lord…"

The nobles deferred to him, heads bowing demurely, cups lifted in toast to his splendor. King Shinra nodded curtly in acknowledgement, waving a hand to silence the crowd before opening his mouth to speak.

"As you all have undoubtedly heard from a friend…or a friend of a friend of a friend, depending on who you are…there was an attack last night on my son, Rufus Shinra…and also the rightful Crown Prince of Gaia," he rumbled monotonously in his low, gravelly baritone voice, diving straight into the topic hanging above their heads in the air. Murmurs erupted in a dull roar again.

His blunt, candid approach shocked Reno, and his bright green eyes widened. _This _was how the King of Gaia addressed his closest advisors? Surely a _king_ would be expected to have more tact…

And then Reno swallowed. Then again, King Shinra had been the first king in the past century of Gaia to gain his throne through the brute strength of a military coup. The man was a cruel, efficient tactician…but a terrible politician.

"Let me retell the truth of what happened last night."

His cold gaze trailed over the crowd again.

"Shortly after sundown yesterday evening, when the sun had sunk below the west horizon, as our vigilant day soldiers were making their last patrol, a dog wandered in the west gate with an incoming carriage of the Highwind family. This dog—also seen by several other nobles, all present at this moment—found its way into my son's tent, and, when he went in to sleep, the dog felt panicked and bit him before running off. Needless to say, my archers brought down the offending hound as it tried to flee."

The king gestured with his fingers without turning, and several attendants brought forth the corpse of a huge brown dog from a bag. Its mouth was still open in a twisted snarl, its black lips flecked with foam. Its matted, mousy fur stuck up in every direction except for around the arrow wound, where blood slicked the curly mat of fur. Ladies released little moues of horror and fainted.

But, hideous as it was, Cloud knew in his heart that the dog lying stiff and stone dead before him was _not_ the one that had buried its fangs into him last night.

"And finally, I would like to remind you that Rufus is of Shinra's proud descent," the king continued, sounding almost condescending, "and _those heirs of Shinra are not expected to die so easily as with a bite from a rampant dog!_"

Alex's grip tightened on the cup as a few nervous chuckles rippled through the nobles, her knuckles whitening as she remembered the hulking monstrosity that had stalked the Shinra tents the night before, its heavy muzzle filled with razor teeth that could cut effortlessly through the very fabric of a human's soul. Both her skill and Cloud's strength combined had not been enough to vanquish the creature. _Rampant dog, indeed!_

"Then how, pray, did a simple-minded rampant dog infiltrate and somehow avoid detection by the 'vigilant day soldiers' patrol?"

The challenging voice sounded tired and rough, as if recovering from an illness, but unyieldingly belligerent. Little gasps of surprise echoed through the tent.

"Milord…_milord_…milord, you really shouldn't be moving right now…" came a worried, low female voice.

King Shinra stiffened and whipped around, eyes flashing, hand reaching for the sword at his waist. No challenge to his authority would be tolerated.

But then he abruptly calmed, his gaze turning back to carefully neutral ice.

"Nurse Tessa, please take my son back to his quarters. Clearly the medication and stress has made the poor child delirious," he ordered indifferently, turning back to face the nobles. Cloud could see the nobles gasping and hissing at one another, but the king himself just blocked the view of his son, Rufus. Yuffie pondered the sound of the Prince's voice wonderingly. The lilt, the cadence of his tones sounded oddly familiar…

Alex almost sprinted out of the tent, shoving several nobles out of the way without apologizing. She tore the restricting fabric of her dress as she ran, allowing her legs more space to stride. Cloud blinked after her rapidly vanishing form and looked questioningly to Vincent.

"Women," Vincent uttered monosyllabically by way of explanation.

Cloud laughed quietly. He could understand that statement.

"I see. So she's a friend of the Prince?"

"Something like that," Vincent replied evasively, sipping.

Cloud raised an eyebrow.

"Ohh…so more than just a friend," Cloud said suggestively, a smile tugging at the corner of his lip.

Vincent looked at Cloud mildly.

"If Alex ever hears you saying that, she'll tear your heart out and eat it," Vincent noted idly, "but yes, you have the general gist of the idea."

"Ahh…okay," Cloud smiled, a half-grimace on his face, "I'll be sure to keep it to myself."

The king and his advisors seemed to be in an intense argument, with the king's face resembling a beet more and more progressively.

"Please enjoy the rest of the luncheon," the king finally snapped, "Unfortunately, I have some _issues_ to attend to."

He stormed out wrathfully, calling for his horse.

"…Well. That was an amusing exercise," Vincent stated vaguely, drifting off, "As for your situation, Cloud, I'll look into it. But…keep an eye on your back, okay? Protect your friends. And most of all, don't act like anything is out of the ordinary. Win the tournament, and I'll figure this out for you."

Vincent gave Cloud the faintest of reassuring smiles and left, his tattered red cloak flapping in the breeze as he stepped back into the sun.

"Well then," Reno quipped, "That's that. Let's go get you ready, Cloud."

And the four trooped off unwittingly to ready Cloud for the tournament of his life.


	7. Pertaining to 'Chiaroscuro'

Hello, my beloved readers, and thank you for waiting so patiently! I've been caught up in term paper, homework, and school in general for a very, very long time, and it's taken me an eternity and a half to update. Please accept my condolences and enjoy! :D

* * *

The King's eyes flashed as his hand swept the white cloth of the tent flap aside, and the whole room seemed to quail before his palpable rage.

…That is, all except for his insolent son, who stretched leisurely on the cushions, looking somehow lax despite his underlying weariness. Rufus glanced at him briefly through cornsilk gold strands of hair with vague distaste and continued to tinker with a small throwing dagger.

"You," he greeted shortly.

The King's fury climbed higher, and he stormed forward, seizing his son's collar and jerking him to face him.

"Do you know what you just did? You just made me look like an absolute fool, Rufus! In front of the entire thrice-accursed noble party! What will they think of a king that cannot control his own son?" he bellowed, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

Rufus's cool blue gaze never left his father's.

"I could ask you the same thing, _Father_," he breathed, "I have heard the rumors, you know. That you were the one who ordered the hit."

The King's mouth opened and shut silently, his ruddy complexion shifting to an almost purple hue.

"How…how dare you think that! You ungrateful _bastard_!" he roared, dropping his son's collar and backhanding him.

Nurse Tessa stifled a yelp of shock and fright as the force of the blow forcefully threw Rufus to the ground. His lean frame was still for a moment before he slowly gathered what little strength he had left and pushed himself to lean on his arms.

The wrathful monarch roughly grabbed his cloak and dragged Rufus upright, his gaze darkened with madness and sheer fury.

"Don't think that I'll spare you just because of your bloodline, Rufus. Do not deceive yourself. If you challenge my authority so openly ever again, I will ensure that you shall never speak again," he rumbled in a low, threatening tone.

He flung Rufus to the earth again and spun on his heel, raging out of the tent with a swirl of agitated silver plates of armor and silk tent.

Nurse Tessa rushed forward before the tent flaps had even settled, her voice tremulous with worry and strain.

"I'm so sorry…are you all right, your Highness?…I know I wasn't of any help, I beg your forgiveness for my incapability…" she apologized, stress redefining the etched lines in her forehead and at the corners of her eyes. As she turned him over, Rufus barely stirred, his cheek already starting to bruise, expression dazed. Nurse Tessa flinched at his wound before slowly trying to lift Rufus's limp form, one arm around his shoulders.

Nurse Tessa looked up at the sound of a scuffing slipper to see a gorgeous woman walk in, her long, flaxen tresses held in a fashionable butterfly shape on her head with innumerable pins, cheeks blushing rouge, flawless skin pale from lack of exposure to the sun. Large, doe-like cornflower-blue eyes blinked at Rufus once before her cherubic lips tugged up into a cruel smile.

"Milady…Queen Adeline," the nurse greeted, curtsying as best as she could with the boy leaning so heavily on her for support.

"I trust that he is doing well?" Queen Adeline smirked, a vicious smile on her face. As if Adeline had ever cared for Rufus.

Nurse Tessa knew better than anyone else how much the second wife of His Royal Highness King Shinra hated the Crown Prince. Adeline was a constant source of pain to the Prince, feigning innocence while throwing careless, malicious barbs at the honor of Camille, the first Queen.

And sure enough, Adeline's pretty face twisted completely into a contemptuous sneer, and after she ensured that Nurse Tessa saw the loathing etched into her visage, she stalked off after her husband.

Nurse Tessa shook her head.

"And she calls herself a Queen…"

The tent's entrance flapped open yet again with a snap, and Nurse Tessa almost dropped Rufus in her surprise and terror.

But the man who strode towards her was not the heartless king of Gaia, nor the vixen Queen.

Vincent Valentine wordlessly dropped to a knee, effortlessly taking Rufus from Nurse Tessa. Nurse Tessa almost protested before he turned to her, the faintest of smiles on his face.

"If it would be pleasing to you, we'll take him to the Turks for you," he murmured softly, kindly, the strange scarlet eyes expressing some measure of respect, "The tournament starts soon. You should rest."

Nurse Tessa blinked, rendered speechless by such courtesy from a noble of such high station.

"I…I…"

"The king will not return until the end of the tournament today," he added, "We have ensured this. It is safe for you to relax a little."

Vincent smiled, this time for certain.

"I'm sure you need the rest if you've been caring for the same prince that I've known for the past eleven years," he said lightly. Nurse Tessa smiled hesitantly at him and stumbled off, too thankful for words.

Vincent watched her go before exiting the tent. Outside two wolves stood silently. The small wolf, Kohaku, sneezed and walked up to him, licking his hand in a friendly greeting. The other wolf, Riku, strode up to him, gazing intently at the inert form at Vincent's side.

Riku saw Rufus's limp form and growled soft and threatening, his own way of expressing disapproval.

"The strange and monstrous ways of some humans…" the wolf growled darkly.

Kohaku's higher, more strident growl agreed. "What nonsense. Why does the Prince get himself into such trouble so often?"

"Though he may be reckless, this time he couldn't possibly have helped it. After all, one does not _choose_ their family," Riku commented wryly, shooting Kohaku a meaningful look.

Kohaku yipped indignantly and nipped Riku. "That was uncalled for!"

Vincent repressed a smile. "Settle down, Kohaku. We're headed to the Turks. They'll prepare him for the tournament."

"Does the young master wish to join the tourney?" Riku asked, surprised.

"Not that I know as of yet," Vincent answered, shaking his head. "But a prince is a prince, and princes must be presentable in public. Not dressed like a lowlife, road-mongering brigand."

Riku smiled faintly as he saw Rufus's plain black cloak and padded off at an easy lope into the Shinra encampment, Haku following, unwittingly carrying the Valentines ever closer to the collision of trials, fates, and loyalties that lay ahead.

* * *

Sir Sephiroth Masamune atop his pale horse waited silently, wraithlike, in the hazy sunlit camp. Pages and squires scuttled about busily, squabbling, gossiping, and laughing together as they readied their masters' armor and weapons. His own squire, Yazoo, did not participate in such frivolities, cutting his way through the crowds efficiently from place to place to gather his equipment. He narrowed his eyes in satisfaction born from inbred superiority.

Sephiroth's malachite eyes landed on a particularly animated scuffle at the edge of the camp, and his lip curled as he recognized the lanky man with red hair, the short, jumpy girl, and the calmer, bear-like squire. The squires of Coryn Valentine, no doubt.

"…you _idiot_ Reno! You _stupid_ tomato! You _ruined_ his chain mail! Now how's he supposed to live through even a _single_ jousting round, huh?! Do you _want_ him to get impaled on someone's lance?!" Yuffie shrieked, flapping her arms about. Reno danced away from her, yelping his strangled apologies.

"I didn't mean to! Besides, all I did was smudge it a little! It's not like 'Ryn's gonna keep it super-clean anyhow—" Reno pranced out of the way of Yuffie's swinging club. "Hey! No need to make such a fuss! The lances are blunted, too—"

"_That's NOT THE POINT!"_

"Calm down, guys. _Simmer._ Remember—we actually have stuff to do today!" Zack intervened, a fiercely cheerful smile on his face. We need to _cooperate!"_

The three tussled briefly and halfheartedly one last time and eventually settled, bustling about.

"How the mighty Valentines have fallen," Sephiroth noted to himself, eyebrows raised, "Such disgraceful squires."

Speaking of squires, however, Kadaj and Loz had yet to return from their search for information on Coryn Valentine. Sephiroth's features took on a look of slight dissatisfaction. Both knew that he needed them to return if he wanted to execute the plan as they had spent years perfecting.

"Masamune."

Sephiroth's horse jerked at its bit in sudden horror as a huge white wolf with golden eyes padded up silently next to them, bearing Vincent Valentine in full armor. After quelling the horse's fear with a snap of the reins, Sephiroth acknowledged his fellow noble silently with a nod.

"Good morning to you, Valentine."

Vincent nodded this time. Sephiroth noted that Vincent completely dressed for battle looked much the same as the Vincent dressed for everyday work. The only noticeable difference were the black breastplate and greaves strapped on under the cloak. Sephiroth appreciated (with a practiced detachment) the practical and conservative uniform of the only truly working noble family.

"How goes the business in the North?" Vincent queried softly, gazing over the hubbub roused by the squires in the town.

_Still as well-versed in small talk and discreet flattery as the other nobles, though,_ Sephiroth noted.

"Prosperously, thank you. I trust that Lady Valentine is well?"

Was that a glance that Vincent shot his way? The movement had been fast enough that Sephiroth could barely tell if it had actually happened or not.

"…Yes. She is well."

Vincent shifted and drew out a scroll with the official Shinra seal waxed onto the edges of the curling paper. Without so much as a look at Sephiroth, he handed it over.

Surprisingly, even after Sephiroth accepted it without comment, Vincent did not ask of the contents of the scroll. Sephiroth's lips pulled into a wry smile. These Valentines—so bound by their precious loyalty that they would die with their lips pressed together, not knowing what they had died for. Invaluable, that kind of loyalty.

Sephiroth released an inward sigh. It was a shame that they were so dead set on wiping out the Valentines, too. Such obedient servants could have their purposes, too.

But then, as Sephiroth discreetly studied Vincent's utterly placid expression, he saw again why the Valentines had to be destroyed. The reason was writ in every self-assured feature of the noble's face. Sephiroth could tell, just by looking at Vincent, that, unlike the other nobles, the Valentines would never be bribed, bullied, or beaten into submission. They would be slaughtered down to their last man, and fight until their entire family branch had been wiped off the face of Gaia—but they would never, ever surrender.

"Damn them, their thrice-accursed loyalty and their stiff necks," their leader had said more than once. "If there's a force we need to be really careful of, it's the Valentines, Sephiroth. They're like foxes—they'll fight bitterly, and then disappear from the public eye for a while before retaliating even more powerfully than ever. We need to make sure they go down first, and stay down the whole time."

Sephiroth cracked the seal and unrolled just the top part of the scroll. It seemed unlikely that anybody would be able to approach him in the nobles' tents unnoticed, but then again, in his world, paranoia was simply another way to stay alive…

Sephiroth re-furled the scroll and turned to Vincent, satisfied at his brief survey of the parchment.

"Alas, it seems I have business to attend to, Sir Valentine. Hopefully, I shall see you soon. I assume you will be partaking in the tourney?"

"Unfortunately, that will not be possible. I have a…previous engagement as well," Vincent replied, "However, I'm sure you've heard of our young prodigy, Coryn. He, not I, will represent the Valentines in this tournament."

Was it just a trick of the light, or did Vincent's unnerving crimson gaze suddenly grow sharper?

Sephiroth nodded curtly. Though he'd never admit it, Vincent's eyes, with their strange hue, were…unnerving.

"He's gained even more sympathy since we last met, Valentine. Much of which can be attributed to his saving Prince Shinra," Sephiroth noted off-handedly. His brilliant malachite gaze, however, watched Vincent's reaction with a perceptive steadiness.

"…Yes. That is…true. Coryn saved the prince…and the only heir to the throne."

Sephiroth had to suppress his sudden caution. Was Vincent's allusion to Rufus's status a mere coincidence…or did the Valentine family suspect more than they were letting on…?

"Regrettably, Sir Masamune, I have other business to attend to. I should hope to see you again soon before our families clash in earnest for the gold in the Tournament," Vincent murmured, nodding to Sephiroth. _Again,_ Sephiroth thought, his suspicion rising, _again Vincent worded his sentences oddly…as if to warn me against any foul play. 'I __**should**__ hope…' Does he mean to say that he does __**not**__ hope to see us, though he should? Clash in __**earnest**__? Is it possible that Valentine…?_

"May your swords stay sharp," Vincent said, interrupting Sephiroth's thoughts. Without waiting for the customary reply, he murmured to the wolf, and the duo trotted off, huge and daunting in the full glare of the sunlight.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes as the wolf ambled deeper into the Edge.

"Problems, sir?" Yazoo materialized at his side, cool and calm as a sheet of ice.

"…No, Yazoo. Have you finished the preparations for the tournament?"

"Yes, sir."

Sephiroth turned slightly to Yazoo and lowered his voice. "And what of the…other preparations?"

Yazoo dipped his chin once.

"Very good, then. Has there been word from Kadaj or Loz?"

Yazoo shook his silver head, scattering the sunlight playing on the pale locks.

Sephiroth clenched his fist more tightly around his reins. Another few days. He would give them until the semifinals for them to respond…and then the plan would have to go on, with or without them.

"Let us return to camp. Call the council. The Masamune have matters to discuss," Sephiroth commanded with an imperious wave of his hand. He pulled the reins, and the horse briskly stepped towards the Masamune camp, where the silver angel of their emblem gazed gravely down at the world, its calm expression belying none of the secrets its beautiful eyes beheld.

* * *

"Arghh! I officially hate you, Cloud!"

Yuffie braced herself against the floor again and pushed viciously with all of her strength—and moved it all of three inches. Reno choked back a chuckle.

Yuffie, Reno, Zack, and Cloud had been polishing Cloud's armor for the past few hours. With much screaming, frustration, and releasing of stress through the various mistreatments of Reno, the three of them had managed to oil the greaves, gauntlets and arm bracers, scrub the miniscule rust spots off of the breastplate, and polish the helm—but Cloud's heavy chain mail had thwarted their every effort to clean it. Even with their considerable experience at cleaning armor, none of the squires had actually cleaned chain mail during under the late Coryn Valentine; the old man had never dirtied the mail enough so that it _needed _cleaning.

Finally, Reno had snuck out (at the threat of being defenestrated otherwise) to peek in on how others cleaned their chain mail. With his bright red hair and loud voice, Reno had been spotted and quickly chased out of the Highwind camp while Cid's family flung horseshoes, anvils, and ear-screeching (and surprisingly creative) curses at 'Reno and all of Reno's ancestors down to the last dog'—but Reno still saw the Highwind squires placing the mail in a barrel full of wood shavings and oil.

Hence, Yuffie's current valiant attempt to move a massive keg of oil the three of them had "borrowed without asking" from a temporarily stopped Valentine supply wagon. ("Technically, we're entitled to it," Reno had said rather loudly, almost awakening the peacefully slumbering sentry. Yuffie had then felt 'entitled' to shove Reno's head into a box full of enema bags.)

"It's not working," Cloud sighed, waving for Yuffie to stop. Yuffie gratefully paused for breath, leaning heavily on the barrel.

Reno frowned, thinking fast. "Well, other than the fact that we need this oil in this barrel—" Reno tapped his finger on an empty barrel "—we also need to find wood shavings. Where could we find that?"

"Carpenters?" Cloud suggested.

"Unless you have a friend I don't know about, which I _highly_ doubt, we don't know any carpenters," Reno quipped. Cloud scowled at him.

"Carpenters, woodworkers…maybe blacksmiths?" Yuffie listed, recovered from her exertion.

A light bulb practically lit up over Zack's head.

"Oh! Of course! How could I have not _remembered_ it?" Zack yelped. The other three stared blankly at him.

"Aerith!" Zack exclaimed excitedly. Cloud, Yuffie, and Reno relaxed again, disappointed.

"Yes, Zack, we're very glad that you are finally having your epiphany. We know you like Aerith, Zack. We've been through this already. But we actually have a bit of a predicament on our hands, remember? You know, like, Cloud's armor?" Reno reminded Zack, none too gently.

"No, no, no, you don't get it! Aerith Gainsborough—_Gainsborough_. The Gainsborough family owns practically every blacksmithy in Gaia—it's what their entire fortune comes from, for heavens' sake. They _monopolize_ blacksmithing," Zack explained.

Reno's eyes widened with understanding. "Ohh, and since we know Aerith, we can go ask them for the wood shavings…and instructions on how to properly clean chain metal."

"Exactly," Zack said proudly, nodding.

"Wow, Zack. I'm impressed. You actually had a good idea for once," Yuffie said, but teasingly. "We should head over there before it gets too late."

"Hang on, only Cloud and Zack should go," Reno said. "We need to groom Aryn, clean the swords, wash the tunics—we can't afford to have everyone go. We should stay here and finish cleaning."

Yuffie grumbled a little, but conceded.

"Okay, then. Zack, let's go." Cloud and Zack turned to leave, fluffy blonde and black spikes bouncing side by side as they strode out of the barn and into the sunlight.

Reno released a low whistle as he observed the messy pile of tunics and breeches, the worn and scuffed saddle, Aryn's dust-filled coat, and the large piles of horse manure in the stable. "Well, then. We have our work cut out for us."

Yuffie smirked. "Oh, no. You have your work cut out for you. I am going to go take a nap, to help recover from stealing that barrel." She pretended to swoon and promptly fell onto a haystack, crossing her legs and getting ready to relax.

_Ah, the indignities of being a mere underling._ Reno sighed and rolled up his sleeves. "Come here, Aryn. Let's see that pretty horse face of yours."

This was going to be a very long evening.

* * *

"Are you _sure_ that the Gainsborough encampment is _this_ way?" Cloud asked doubtfully for the sixth time, glancing around at the marketplace they were weaving through. Stalls selling everything from good luck charms to Banora apples vied for their attention, each colorful poster competing with the others. It reminded Zack comfortingly of the marketplaces he had visited during his time as a deliveryman.

"_Yes_, Cloud, I'm _sure_," Zack reassured for the sixth time, slapping the hand of a petty thief as it reached for a ring in a jewelry stand. The owner of the stall, a young, pretty woman wearing a yellow dress, smiled with relief and admiration at Zack.

Zack sighed.

"Cloud, how do you think I could get a noble girl to look at me the way that other girl just looked at me?" Zack asked resignedly, sticking his hands in his pockets. "As if she actually liked me?"

Cloud glanced thoughtfully back at the girl, whose gaze still lingered on Zack's retreating form.

"Well…Hmm. For that girl, her wares were her most valuable items. What would be most precious for a noble?" Cloud reasoned, looking curiously at Zack, "Why? Is it Aerith?"

Zack gave another hopelessly lovesick sigh in response.

"Ah." Cloud noted monosyllabically. They both walked in silence, troubled by their reflecting predicaments, taking solace in each other's empathy.

"Sir Valentine? Squire Fair? Wherefore do you wander?"

Cloud's heart skipped a beat as he heard Her voice query them gently. Zack and he both turned.

Sure enough, it was Lady Lockheart, donning a long, dark blue evening dress. Her midnight-black hair glimmered in a shimmering braid. Zack nudged Cloud with his elbow, prompting the suddenly dumbstruck blonde to speak.

"I…uhh…I mean, we…umm…Prithee, we search for the…encampment of the Gainsborough family…?" Cloud replied haltingly, trying to recall the meager nobility's vocabulary that Vincent had taught him.

She smiled encouragingly at him, but a question remained in her eyes. Cloud stared at her. What was with these women? She had been mad at him before, refusing to tell him her full name—and now was suddenly smiling at him like a friend. Had something happened?

"We're searching for the Gainsborough camp, Milady Lockheart," Zack cut in, shooting an exasperated look at Cloud. "Would you know where it is?"

"The Gainsborough always house next to the Lockheart, Squire Fair. Would this be milord's first tourney abroad?" Lady Lockheart said, a note of confusion entering her voice. Cloud panicked. Vincent hadn't gotten around to teaching them everything they should know as members of the Valentine family…

"Yes, in fact, it is. Thank you so much for the information, Lady Lockheart. I pray that we shall see you soon," Zack said hastily, snatching Cloud's arm and dragging him off.

Cloud moaned as soon as he was around the corner. "Zack, how do I get someone like her to look at me like that girl at the stall? Like she actually likes me?"

Zack patted him on the head consolingly. "Oh, the troubles I've seen," he commented sagely, echoing Reno. "We may as well start heading towards the Gainsborough camp."

Cloud pined the whole way to the Gainsborough camp, and by the time they had arrived at the Gainsborough camp (whose flag was signified by a pink ribbon wrapped around a white flower on a gradient-green background), Zack was irritable, Cloud was still distraught, and they still had no new developments.

"Please state your purpose in coming here, Sir Valentine." The guards at the camp's entrance were clad in white and silver, holding javelins, with swords sheathed at their sides. They were polite, but resolute.

"We come to ask the Gainsborough about an internal matter," Cloud responded, deliberately deflecting the question.

"As per our lord's wishes, we must humbly ask Milord Valentine to disarm before entering our camp," the guards said in unison. "It is Sir Gainsborough's wish to remain as peaceful as possible in these troubled times."

Cloud exchanged glances with Zack. What "troubled times"? Zack shrugged.

"We consent," Cloud agreed, beginning to disarm. He pulled Buster Blade from his back, two daggers from his boots, a small hunting knife from his belt, and pulled off his gauntlets. The guards looked questioningly at the gauntlets that Cloud added to the pile of weapons.

Zack obliged and applied pressure to a particular spot on the palm of the steel-and-leather gloves. Vicious-looking black spikes burst suddenly from hidden slits on the sides of the gauntlets. Cloud smiled as he remembered that the gauntlets had been a gift from Vincent and Alex.

The guards gave Cloud an odd look, but nodded and allowed Zack and Cloud to pass.

"You kept your dagger," Cloud murmured out of the side of his mouth as they moved away from the entrance and into the mass of pitched tents. Zack only smiled and winked at Cloud.

"They asked_ you_ to disarm. Not me," Zack pointed out cheerfully.

"Well, do you expect the Gainsborough to attack us or something?" Cloud growled, refusing to acquiesce.

Zack rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. It's just a…contingency plan, that's all," he answered. "Just in case?"

Cloud grumbled irritably and walked towards the Gainsborough stables.

The Gainsborough barn was a huge, homely brown construct smelling comfortingly of leather, clean straw, soap, and warm horsehide. Strangely, none of the horses had closed stalls—most of them wandered about freely, nibbling on hay or sticking their heads out of open-air windows installed in the walls. The horses bore an astonishing array of colors, from chestnut-roans to black-and-white paints. The horses glanced curiously at the two humans as they walked in, but showed no other sign of interest.

Zack scanned the area and whistled. "They've have a whole army of horses in here, Coryn. I wonder what they're all needed for."

"And yet, there's not a single stable boy or groom here," Cloud noted doubtfully. "No blacksmiths, either."

"Maybe there's a blacksmithy nearby. There usually are. The people there will probably be able to help us, don't you think, Zack?" Cloud said, turning to consult Zack.

"Eh, I suppose," Zack replied rather shortly.

"What's wrong?"

Zack's eyes darted back and forth, and he turned to look at the entrance to the stable.

"I keep feeling like there's something…wrong here," Zack said, softly enough that only Cloud could hear. His intense blue eyes kept panning over the landscape beyond the barn door.

Cloud looked around. "Well, I don't see anything really out of place. Maybe it's just the nerves getting to you."

"…I guess," Zack replied, mustering up a smile. "So are we going to go look for that blacksmith?"

Cloud nodded and exited the barn.

"Hey, look."

Zack pointed at two guards standing watch over the largest tent in the camp.

"Maybe they can give us some directions," Zack suggested.

"Good idea."

Cloud and Zack started walking towards the huge silk tent. As Cloud drew close, he stepped ahead of Zack, shooting his friend an apologetic look. Even now, it chafed at Cloud to assume any superiority over his friends. Zack only grinned and shooed Cloud towards the tent.

Cloud began speaking as he got closer to the tent's guards. "Excuse me, sir, but would you happen to know of—"

Cloud's question died in his throat as the guard's body slumped down at his touch, green eyes empty, mouth slightly open in surprise. Zack tentatively touched the man's neck and flinched back. No pulse.

Cloud stared at the husk in horror. "What the…?"

There was no mark on the body to indicate cause of death. It was as if his heart had just stopped beating of its own accord.

A distinctive clash of metal came from inside the tent, and a furious roar.

Cloud and Zack looked at each other. Cloud gritted his teeth. He himself was unarmed—and Zack had exactly one small punch dagger hidden in his sleeve, outfitted specifically for extremely close combat.

The dagger slid smoothly out of Zack's sleeve and into his palm, and Zack fiddled with it for a moment, deliberating. Cloud immediately understood his intention and opened his mouth to protest.

"Zack, don't," Cloud warned. "I'll go back and get the weapons and stuff, we can call the others, and then—"

Zack brushed past Cloud and sprinted into the tent, slipping past Cloud's outstretched fingers. Cloud swore a hot oath (coincidentally one that he had learned vicariously from the Highwind family) and followed right on Zack's heels, growling curses after his impetuous friend through gritted teeth.

"Zack, I swear to the one and holy God, what is the _matt_—"

Cloud paused mid-sentence as he saw a man calmly wiping the blood off of his sword on the cloak of a form collapsed on the floor. Zack stood nearby, drawn and white, but mercifully intact.

The tent was spacious and bedecked tastefully in mainly white and green tapestries and rugs, befitting the high status of the Gainsborough's leader. Curiously, though, several huge maps lay strewn across the surface of a mahogany desk nearby, along with a couple of quills and inkwells. Cloud felt a little surprised—accurate maps were rare, not to mention extremely prized (there was a joke amongst squires: 'Nobles treasured their maps as much as their family lineages, and slightly more than their squires; for, after all, the squires, as useful as they were, could be replaced, while 20,000-gil maps were most _certainly_ not.').

The Gainsborough knight turned to face Cloud. His youthful features—high cheekbones, imperious malachite eyes, short, wildly tousled brown locks, and delicately handsome face—practically screamed his noble status.

"Sir Valentine," the young Gainsborough greeted calmly, sheathing his sword and sweeping into a perfect half-formal court bow, "'Tis a pleasure to see thee for mineself."

Cloud involuntarily froze, his tongue tangled around the proper response. After all the lessons he'd had with Vincent and Alex, cramming his head full of "_thee_"s and "_thou_"s, Cloud still believed in the back of his mind that nobles talked like the commoners of Midgar. Hearing the garbled, archaic dialect flow so smoothly from this teen's mouth startled Cloud and brought his face-to-face with the truth: nobles were almost a race apart from the common folk of Cloud's hometown.

Cloud fumbled painfully with his response.

"I…that is to say…"

"Or perhaps, if you are willing, Sir Coryn, we could drop the pretenses and speak in Common," he grinned slightly, as if sharing some joke with Cloud. When he smiled, he suddenly looked very young, and Cloud couldn't help wondering what his age really was.

_Common? What's common?_ Cloud panicked momentarily before remembering: the nobles referred to the peasants' everyday syntax as "Common", as if it were a different language.

"I would be most thankful," Cloud replied gratefully, releasing an inward sigh of relief. At least the Gainsborough didn't always speak in Proper.

"I believe an explanation is in order, but first let us ensure that your squire sees the night through," he said in a softer tone, turning his head to Zack. "If I am not mistaken, he took some injury in aiding me."

Cloud felt an internal spike of concern, but restrained himself from rushing over to his friend. The distance between seemed to stretch to miles as he forced himself to walk measured steps to where Zack stood.

"Are you alright, Zack?" Cloud said with as much indifference as he could inject into his voice, almost radiating unspoken worry. Zack cradled his right arm a little awkwardly, and Cloud glimpsed a patch of blood slowly soaking the makeshift bandage wrapped around his forearm.

"Fine, Sir Coryn. Just a scratch,"

"Though not many nobles subscribe to this belief, there is an age-old adage among the Gainsborough: To see the true character of knight or lord, first look at those who care for his sword," the young noble said softly, nodding towards Zack, "And I must say…I am deeply impressed."

Cloud had to stop himself from outright pumping his fist in the air, though Zack probably understood the idiotic grin suddenly splashed across his face. Zack snorted in return.

Cloud suppressed his scowl and returned his attention to the young noble before him. "May I ask what happened, Lord Gainsborough?"

"I do owe you a full explanation, but to my deep regret, I must say this is probably not the best time," he sighed, casually furling up the maps scattered along his desk. Cloud didn't miss the movement. _What do you have to hide, Lord Gainsborough?_ "Perhaps we should—"

The tent flap whipped open and a woman with fierce green eyes and long, braided brown hair burst into the tent. Dressed in a pink dress, with a long pink ribbon in her hair, she looked extremely familiar to Cloud, and Cloud's brows wrinkled as he tried to recall her name.

And, alarmingly, a bright nimbus of green energy sheathed her right hand.

"Alessandro, are you alright?" she demanded, eyeing Cloud suspiciously, her hand half-raised. Cloud swallowed hard; during one of his lessons, Vincent had told him that female mages who could throw even half-decent spells were a major threat to anybody, knight or peasant. This woman held her power like she knew exactly what she was doing with it.

"Relax, Aerith, he's a friend," the nobleman sighed, and Cloud thought he detected a hint of annoyance in his youthful tone. "I _can_ take care of myself, you know." _Of course, that's Aerith!_ Cloud almost smacked himself in the forehead.

_But wait…Aerith is…a spellcaster? _Cloud's eyes flickered towards Zack, who suddenly sat completely still.

"Well, you certainly have an interesting way of proving your ability to take care of yourself, Ales," she said, releasing the gathered energy and raising an eyebrow as she glanced at the dead assassin on the floor. An almost palpable wave of liberation spread over the room as the power's potency retreated into Aerith's skin.

"I'm whole and healthy, am I not?" Lord Gainsborough protested. "No need for drastic measures…"

"After what happened at Shinra's encampment, I think that I'm allowed to feel a little protective of my baby brother," Aerith replied primly, smoothing down her dress.

"Oh, for the _hundredth_ time, Rith, I am _older_ than you! And for Jenova's sake, please don't call me that when there are other living beings present," Alessandro said, his voice almost a groan. Cloud grinned. Under Aerith's care, the Gainsborough leader suddenly seemed quite young.

And then the full gravity of the situation hit Cloud. _Wait, Aerith is the Gainsborough's…heir? _

"I suppose you should introduce me to your acquaintances, Ales," Aerith said, magnificently ignoring Alessandro's complaint. She swept into a perfect court bow, just as Lord Gainsborough had. "Welcome to our humble abode."

Aerith came out of her curtsy and met Cloud's eyes for the first time.

"Oh…Sir Coryn," Aerith struggled to recover the placid look on her face. "'Tis fortunate for us to meet again so soon."

"It is good to see you as well."

"You already know him?" Alessandro looked confused.

"Yes, I met him at King Shinra's meeting yesterday," Aerith answered, scanning Cloud carefully. Cloud had the strange feeling that Aerith was shrewdly scrutinizing him behind those pretty green eyes.

After a few more moments of eye contact, Cloud decided it was safer to talk to Alessandro than have a staring contest with a sorceress. "Lord Gainsborough, I apologize in advance, but my squire still needs treatment, and the Valentine camp is a fair distance from here. If we may take our leave…?"

"Absolutely not," Alessandro stated firmly. "Your squire incurred injury on my behalf, and the Gainsborough shall take full responsibility in his healing." He turned to his sister. "Aerith, if you'd do me the favor of taking Zack to the Healers, it would be deeply appreciated."

If Aerith was surprised to see Zack sprawled behind Cloud, she did an excellent job of hiding it. "Certainly, Ales." She nodded again to Cloud and stepped to attend Zack.

Aerith knelt and smiled at Zack. "Well, hello again, Zack Fair." Cloud didn't miss the new warmth in her voice.

"Sorry if she acts a little cold to you at first," Alessandro sighed, drawing Cloud's attention back to the young noble. "Aerith doesn't trust other nobles as easily as she trusts…well, actually, any other class. She claims that nobles lie whenever their lips move." Alessandro rolled his eyes. "She also tends to forget that she's also a noble."

Cloud grinned. "I think that I agree with her, though."

Ales smiled, but his expression was hesitant. "I wonder, though…would it be too much to ask if I requested your utmost silence on this matter? The Gainsborough, much like the Valentine, treasure privacy greatly, and Aerith has chosen not to divulge the presence of her gift with others…"

_Vincent did say that it was uncommon and sometimes problematic when it became known that certain noble family members held magic at their fingertips,_ Cloud recalled._ It's still strange, though, to see such confidentiality in practice_.

"Of course," Cloud conceded. _It would be hypocritical to say 'no', anyway, seeing as how I'm also relying on the discretion of others to keep my own secret._

"Thank you, Sir Coryn," Ales replied emphatically. A previously unnoticed tension left Ales's shoulders. _I wonder if he's glad because the Gainsborough name was just saved, or because he genuinely happy for his sister…_

Cloud blinked as he reconsidered his last thought. _Wow, I'm getting cynical._

Attempting to shake the unfounded suspicions sneaking up on him, Cloud abruptly changed the subject. "Do you think it's okay if I leave Zack with her?"

"For all her talk, Aerith is one of the most gifted, compassionate Healers around. Zack will be perfectly safe in her care," Ales assured Cloud. He turned his bright gaze on Cloud, and he seemed to sober. "However, I would like to…discuss something with you, Sir Valentine."

Cloud sensed the atmosphere taking on a more serious tone. He turned his total focus to the young Gainsborough.

"The Gainsborough…have heard some things about you, Sir Coryn," Alessandro said slowly. Cloud's heart suddenly stopped—and then began pounding a frantic beat against his ribcage. XIII…had he or she told the Gainsborough about his identity?

"Oh?" Cloud tried to sound nonchalant.

Alessandro leaned in slightly, as if to exclude Aerith and Zack from the range of hearing. "I would simply like to…confirm something with you, Sir Coryn. We've heard some troubling rumors of—"

The tent flaps flew open, admitting a small black-and-white streak, and Cloud's hand instantly jumped to the Buster Blade's hilt. _Another assassination attempt, so soon after the first?_

A black figure tumbled down from a white wolf's back and onto its feet with a solid thump.

Alex threw back her hood, out of breath, her hair sticking wildly out of her whipping braid. She already held a strange, transparent sword in her hand. Reflections of the candles lit in the tent danced along its invisible cutting edge.

"Ales, are you okay?" she demanded, scanning the room.

Ales sighed. "Why does this always happen to me? Yes, I'm fine, Alex. Please sheathe your weapon. I feel like the damsel in distress instead of the damsel-in-distress-saver."

"Since your rather crippled sense of humor is still intact, I'm going to assume you're okay," Alex snorted, rolling her eyes and complying. She turned to Cloud. "And you, Coryn? Are you well?"

"I am well, thank you Lady Valentine," Cloud returned smoothly. Something like approval flashed over Alex's face before she turned to Zack.

"And I can see that you've gone and injured yourself, Zack," Alex sighed. "How is he, Aerith?"

"The damage is mostly superficial, and I've cleaned the area—he'll recover as long as he gets adequate rest and keeps the wound clean." Aerith shot Cloud a sharp look. "I believe that a break from squiring duties may be in order, Sir Valentine."

Cloud was startled at her instant disapproval. "Of course." _Ales really wasn't kidding when he said that Aerith doesn't like other nobles._

Aerith seemed taken aback by Cloud's ready acquiescence. "Oh…very well then. Alex, would you allow us to borrow Sayuri to carry Zack to the Healers' tent? I'm afraid their camp is rather difficult to approach by foot, and time is still of the essence."

"Gladly." Sayuri trotted over and knelt, helping a progressively paler Zack onto her back. Alex turned to Lord Gainsborough and Cloud as Aerith settled behind Zack.

"Can I trust the two of you to play nice and not kill each other?" she asked, only half-joking.

"Alex, despite your persisting distrust of my intentions, I feel only obligation to the Valentine family. We are still indebted, after all," Ales replied.

Alex's seemed to appraise Ales briefly, dark eyes inscrutable.

"…Right." She leapt up onto Sayuri's back and addressed Cloud, completely ignoring Ales's presence. "I know that Alessandro looks harmless, Coryn, but watch your back. He's just as devious as the rest of us."

With that, Sayuri padded out of the tent, tail waving a wafting farewell.

"…She's kidding," Cloud finally decided aloud, smiling back at Ales. _Or, at least, I hope._ "And I do trust you, no matter what she says."

Ales looked startled, but grateful.

"Thank you, Coryn. I know that there's no great love lost between our respective guilds, but it is…a great honor to receive such tolerance," Ales replied formally, slightly inclining his head to Cloud.

Cloud panicked.

_Wait…did the Valentines ever have a falling-out with the Gainsborough? When? Why didn't Vincent tell me about this?_ Cloud twitched, remembering what Vincent had said during one of their conditioning sessions.

"_I'm not perfectly sure how other families operate, but it's an unspoken rule that what one Valentine says, the entire Valentine family will support." _

Cloud felt a sinking sensation. Did I just bind the Valentines to an alliance with their enemy?

"…eh…Sir Coryn?"

Cloud woke from his daze and turned to Ales. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I missed what you said."

"I had actually rather wished to speak to you about that…other matter, Sir Coryn," Alessandro repeated patiently.

Cloud stared blankly at Ales. "…Another matter?"

"You see, Sir Coryn…" Ales's young face was abruptly solemn. "A few weeks ago, before the tournament, the Gainsborough—as well as the Highwind, the Wallace, the Lockheart, and your own venerable family, I'm sure—received a very…peculiar call to arms."

What's a 'call to arms'?

Cloud opted for (what he hoped was) an impassive silence.

Ales spoke slowly, choosing his words with care. "As you may have been informed, Sir Coryn, this…summons came from the Masamune family, led by the honorable Sir Sephiroth Masamune."

Sephiroth? What could he possibly want from the Gainsborough?

"If you've read this note, Sir Coryn, I'm sure you realize that it alludes to some…controversial themes. I also trust that you, of course, have formed your own valued opinions on the content of these letters."

What letters? Cloud had visited (and been utterly astounded by) the Valentine camp exactly once to receive his upgraded gear from Vincent. Vincent hadn't said anything about mail…

"If I may be so bold, Sir Coryn…I'd like to ask you to deliver a message to the Valentine family leader, his honorable Sir Vincent Valentine," Ales said, every syllable precise and measured.

"Yes?"

"I know there are differences between our families, but please…" Ales met and held Cloud's gaze steadily, some unidentified emotion roiling behind Ales's sweet façade. "Let us put them aside, if only for the sake of _chiaroscuro_."

Cloud blinked. "Chiar…oscuro?"

"Vincent will understand," Ales murmured, more to himself than to Cloud, already collecting his relaxed demeanor around himself again. He brightened with every passing moment, and Cloud sensed that some great burden had been lifted from him.

"Now that that's said and done, perhaps, Sir Coryn, would you grant me the honor of leading you properly around the Gainsborough grounds? It's quite beautiful here normally," Ales suggested, putting on another flawlessly dazzling smile.

_How do they do it?_ Cloud wondered, amazed at Ales's abruptly refreshed and enthused demeanor as they left the head leader's tent. _How can they stand holding their feelings behind those masks…and acting as if everything's perfectly alright? How does it __**not**__ tear them apart?_

"Coryn?" Ales was staring curiously at him, noticing Cloud's conspicuous silence. "Are you well?"

"Wh—oh, I'm fine." Cloud slapped a fake smile onto his face. _Please be fooled please be fooled please be fooled—_

"Actually, Sir Coryn, now that I think about it…what was it that you visited our humble abode for?" Ales queried, studying a tall mare that trotted by. His attention seemed entirely unfocused.

_Good. He didn't notice._ Cloud released a sigh of relief. "My retinue and I came to visit because of our lamentable lack of experience in cleaning armor."

"Your squires do not know how to clean armor?" Ales's head snapped around, seeming completely flabbergasted by such a notion, his placid noble features arrayed in the bizarre expression of empathizing horror.

Cloud suppressed a smile at the unjustified magnitude of Ales's sympathy. "My squires' former master had no need for clean armor, and this is my first time entering any event that requires presentable equipment."

"And the other Valentine do not help you?" Ales now sounded righteously angry. "Surely they will assist you, even if you are not a main family member—"

"Oh, no, the Valentine are delightfully cooperative. We—I live separately by choice," Cloud replied, almost tasting the sweet delicacy of the bizarre noble language on his tongue. _Yechh. It's so wordy. How does Vincent talk like this everyday?_

Ales looked confused again and politely attempted to clarify. "Then…you simply prefer our advice?"

"Zack suggested that, perhaps, as the most influential blacksmithing noble family, you might have a better idea of how to clean armor," Cloud hastily supplied, trying not stumble over his words. _It's so hard to talk like this!_

"Ah. In that case, please follow me to the blacksmithy," Ales said firmly, taking a turn. "The Gainsborough are eager to help the Valentine in any way."

"Oh—oh, if it is not—too much trouble…" Cloud was surprised by Ales's fierce adamancy. _Why is he so set on helping me? I'm not even that important within the Valentine family…maybe he still feels guilty about Zack._

Before Cloud could say anything more to reassure the other knight, Ales continued his monologue. "The Gainsborough representative in this tournament, our majestic Sir Remiel, was eliminated in the semifinals in Junon. Therefore, as it stands, Sir Coryn, the Gainsborough are here purely for spectating and repair purposes. We do not currently have a knight championing the family in the king's tourney…"

Ales stopped and turned on his heel as if to inspect Cloud, a small, mischievous smile forming on his face. Cloud felt a slight panic—he'd seen that dangerously impish look before on Zack, Reno, and Yuffie…and what had ensued was never pleasant.

"Sir Coryn…would you mind terribly if I requested a favor of you?"

Normally Cloud would immediately have agreed. Ales's conniving expression made him falter—and with good reason.

"If…if I may be so rude as to ask what that favor is…" Cloud said slowly.

Ales beamed as cheerfully as if Cloud had answered affirmatively. "Well, you see, Coryn, my honorable sister Aerith actually has quite a deft hand in synthesis sorcery…and a few months ago, she'd been experimenting with some of her spells on the metal when she discovered…"

…

Ales and Cloud arrived at the blacksmithy ten minutes later, and Cloud stood there, goggling at the mounds of iron and tools.

"So, Cloud…what do you think?" Ales concluded, finally wrapping up his speech. His piercingly green eyes were gauging Cloud's reaction very carefully.

Cloud hesitated. _Well, what could go wrong?_

"I…I'd be honored to," Cloud answered, keeping his face neutral.

As Ales turned his back, Cloud grimaced, listening to Ales calling orders and animatedly chatting about prospects of the tourney.

"What could go wrong?" Famous last words.

* * *

Kadaj splashed a boot moodily in a puddle on the ledge below before scowling up at the sky.

"Three days of nonstop cloud cover, and then a torrential rainstorm," Kadaj complained from atop his perch on one of the library's stone lions. His warm, spell-laced gray cloak repelled moisture as the droplets fell thick and fast, but Kadaj still hated the rain. "No wonder the prince sneaks out of Junon whenever he can."

A raindrop snuck under the rim of his hood and jumped gleefully onto his nose with a gratified splat. Kadaj released another hefty sigh and pulled the cloak tighter, absently surveying the strangely quiet and empty Junon streets. He was sneaking a quick break from the stuffy interior of the huge Shinra Library, leaving Loz alone with the mound of books.

Kadaj snickered. Loz always looked constipated when he was trying to read, his brow furrowed, a permanent glower affixed to his visage.

_And now I have to report back to Sephiroth,_ Kadaj thought with a groan, the smile sliding off of his face. _He's not going to be happy with us…_

Kadaj unwillingly pulled the shard of mirror from his pocket and threw it into the air. The piece stopped mid-revolution and hung frozen in the air an arm's breadth from Kadaj, impossibly still despite the wind and rain.

He traced a charm under his left eye with one gloved black finger and then reached out, touching the glass. "Aurum oculus."

Kadaj's left eye blossomed into a coin gold as the charm reached through space, searching for its partner. Kadaj closed his right eye with a grimace, shutting out the gloomy panorama of grays and blacks. _I always forget how distracting it is to see different things with each eye._

Kadaj left eye blinked and he jerked back as the charm linked and the vision in his left eye suddenly telescoped in on the image of a furry neck of a huge white horse. _Geez, Yazoo, what are you doing?_

_//Oh, it's you.//_ Yazoo sounded distinctly annoyed across their mental link. _//Well, it's about time. Sephiroth's ticked off. He practically killed someone today for forgetting to rub down the horse.//_

_As if he ever liked Tyro_, Kadaj grumbled. _Anyway, Loz and I still haven't found anything. Pass the message on._

_//Hah-hah, funny joke. You can tell him yourself,//_ Yazoo answered. Yazoo turned away from the horse, and Kadaj saw the camp passing by through Yazoo's eye. As Yazoo prowled swiftly to the main tent, Kadaj noticed someone in the crowd.

_Was that __**Blackjack**__?_ Kadaj exclaimed.

_//Yep. Sephiroth called him back from the Northern Reaches just for this tournament. We're hiding him for now since he is, in fact, a wanted criminal in every city in Gaia,//_ Yazoo informed, his tone even more severely irritated. _//Although there's only so much you can do to hide a seven-foot-tall, __**fire-breathing **__horse and a knight that carries a lance that dwarfs most __**trees**__.//_

_Lemme guess, Sephy put you on babysitting duty?_ Kadaj chuckled, imagining Yazoo's aggrieved expression at trying to guard the mostly-mute and questionably insane Blackjack. _Isn't Blackjack taller than you?_

_//Shut up, Kadaj.//_

Kadaj was still grinning to himself when Yazoo drew aside the tent flap leading to Sephiroth's living quarters. The inside was Spartan and bleak, with a few black-upholstered silver chairs and sturdy wood-and-steel tables bending under the weight of heavy tomes and mounds of parchment or lambskin scrolls.

_No bed, huh? I wonder where he sleeps,_ Kadaj mused as Yazoo surveyed the area. Yazoo huffily refused to answer, still smarting from Kadaj's earlier jibe.

"…Yazoo?"

Yazoo whipped around, reflexively placing a hand on the hilt of his sword. Sephiroth stood behind him, his sleek noble features inscrutable. His cat-like green eyes narrowed as he studied Yazoo. "So Kadaj has finally decided to report in."

"Yes, I…" Yazoo settled further back in the mind link, allowing Kadaj's thoughts to translate directly into verbal speech. "Loz and I have yet to find anything about a Sir Coryn in Valentine records. As I am sure you are well aware, the Valentine family is a very old and extensively branched establishment."

"How much longer do you estimate you will need?"

"For a full examination, a week, perhaps. We've just finished looking through the main branch genealogy, and we're starting on the maternal side of Vincent Valentine," Kadaj/Yazoo stated.

"We are pressed for time," Sephiroth said decisively. "You have three days to finish, Kadaj. Three days, and return, with or without the knowledge."

"Sir, I was thinking we could bring the book back with us, so that Loz, Yazoo, and I could study it further," Kadaj/Yazoo said. Kadaj sensed a sudden burst of discontentment from their mental link. _//Hey, hey! I didn't volunteer for that job! Do not drag me into this, Kadaj!// _Kadaj ignored Yazoo.

"As much as I would like to do so…" Sephiroth's lip curled. "Unless you have visited the Shinra library before and have an identification card to check it out, Kadaj, you will simply have to leave without the book."

Kadaj was puzzled at Sephiroth's reticence. "Sir, I am capable of stealing the book."

One elegant silver brow arched. "Kadaj, at the risk of sounding as if I doubt your skills…have you met the head librarian?"

Kadaj remembered the doddering, sweet, grandmotherly librarian who had asked him if he had needed any assistance.

"I…yes?" Kadaj/Yazoo replied, still befuddled.

"Her full name is Gwinvere Renoma Valentine. She is two hundred and seventy-three, appears as if she's twenty, and happens to be one of the most highly celebrated mages ever to be born in Gaia. At the Battle of Ferr Leon, also known as the Battle of the Iron Lion, she was the one who single-handedly crushed the fortress's defenses and ultimately led to Shinra's success in the final duel by deflecting an arrow that would have otherwise killed the king."

"Respectfully, sir…she didn't look twenty," Kadaj/Yazoo said. _More like twenty million._

A rare smile touched Sephiroth's lips. "She's also renowned for her astounding skill at holding long-term illusory disguises."

"…Oh."

Kadaj resolved to be more careful around the librarian next time.

"She's one of the most famous tutors in magic in Gaia, despite the general public's stigma towards magic and magic-users. Along with teaching the everyday peasants blessed with small amounts of power, Gwinvere has trained several prominent noble members who wield considerable amounts of magic—including the current leader of the Valentine, Vincent Valentine. Such a task is a daunting feat. Detecting the loss of a single book…" Sephiroth's smile grew wider. "…well, you can imagine that she would notice." He concluded, amused by Kadaj's surprise.

Kadaj gaped uselessly for a few minutes before finally stuttering out: "I…I understand, sir." _Twenty? TWENTY?_

_//For Jenova's sake, Kadaj, of __**course**__ that's what you get hung up over,// _Yazoo sighed. _//Get outta my head. My turn to drive.//_

As Kadaj drifted back and relinquished control, Yazoo respectfully completed a full bow to Sephiroth before heading out of the tent and back towards the stables._ //Anything else you wanted to say, Kadaj?//_

Kadaj pretended to think deeply. _…How much you wanna bet she's a total hottie?_

Yazoo didn't even bother to reply to Kadaj's laughter before cutting off the connection.

* * *

So the newest chapter is finally revealed! I finally had Kadaj and Yazoo involved in some witty repetoire as I've been dying to do for so long...yay!

Please review (if you have the time)! Even a few lines are encouraging!


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